Duleep Trophy 2024-25: Sunil Gavaskar questions Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli’s exclusion

Star India cricketers Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Ravichandran Ashwin and Hardik Pandya have not been named for the upcoming Duleep Trophy, slated to begin on September 5. It has been understood that BCCI is not considering Pandya for red-ball cricket while giving rest to Kohli, Rohit, Bumrah and Ashwin keeping the upcoming 10-match Test marathon in mind.

Former cricketer Sunil Gavaskar however isn’t a fan of it. He noted that giving a break to Bumrah is understandable as it's important to manage his workload, but the same cannot be said for Rohit and Kohli. He explained that after a certain age, batters start losing muscle memory, and it makes them weak. The 75-year-old added that the duo should have played in the Duleep Trophy, as it would have also given them some match practice.

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“The selectors have not picked the skipper Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli for the Duleep Trophy so they will most likely go into the Bangladesh Test series without much match practice,” Gavaskar wrote in his column for the Mid-day.

“While it’s understandable that somebody like Jasprit Bumrah with his delicate back needs to be handled with care, the batters could have done with some batting time out in the middle. Once a player hits the mid-thirties in any sport, then regular competition will help him maintain the high standards he has set. When there’s a longish gap then the muscle memory weakens somewhat and to get back to the high standards from earlier is not easy,” he added.

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For the unversed, the BCCI secretary Jay Shah previously stated that the board didn’t want the duo to play as they would carry the risk of being injured. India are slated to play a two-match Test series against Bangladesh, a three-match series against New Zealand and a five-match series against Australia and notably, both Rohit and Virat will play a vital role in all three series. Keeping that in mind, BCCI decided not to risk them.