Virat will not miss a single match as long as his body allows, says R Sridhar

Many cricketers opt for a rest after a long and successful series but don’t anyone dare to think that the current Indian skipper will take rest just for the sake of it. This man, the owner of 32 ODI centuries at the age of 29, puts in the same amount of hard work, day in day out irrespective of the opposition. His team’s fielding coach, R Sridhar has said that the epitome of flexibility and agility, Virat Kohli won’t miss a match as long as his body doesn’t force the Delhi lad to.

Many Indian supporters are not considering Sri Lanka as an opponent good enough to give a tough time to the Men in Blue and hence thought the leader of the pack will take some rest after the hectic schedule. But there he is, fighting it out in the rain-marred Eden Gardens in Kolkata.

In a candid chat for the YouTube series called ‘Breakfast With Champions’, the owner of over 9000 ODI runs said that he will play as long as he has the burning desire in himself, which asks him to put in his level best every day, irrespective of whether the team has a match or not. As per Sridhar, Kohli is someone who wears his pride on his sleeves.

“Each member in this team is very proud to represent his country at any given opportunity. Most in the team love to play every match. Knowing Virat, he wears his pride on his sleeve. As long as his body allows he would not miss a single second of the match,” said the man from Mysore as quoted by PTI.

When asked about how the once ever-so-sluggish Indian team is so very active in the field nowadays, the 47-year-old commented: “We are not doing any magic trick. As far as fielding goes, the formula is very simple, the more you practice the better you get. You can see the results because it’s a controllable skill of the game unlike bowling and batting which one cannot control. So we work hard on the things we can control and I may sound like a broken record here but the only way to get better is to practice a lot and that’s what this team does.”

Why is Hardik Pandya not playing?

While Kohli is doing his job against the Lankans in the Tests, all-rounder Hardik Pandya has been rested for the series. On being asked about it, Sridhar said, “The parameters we take into consideration is the workload. The time he spent at the crease, overs, batting. Based on that, the team management takes a call on who needs to be rotated.”

Door is open for Raina?

Once Indian fans would proudly claim that they have one of the fittest fielders in the world in their ranks, in Suresh Raina. Whereas they still claim something similar with Hardik Pandya, their forgotten hero’s fitness level is not quite up to the mark.

Sridhar feels once Raina is successful in cracking the fitness tests, he will be in the giant scheme of things again. “He’s a fabulous fielder. Once he is through with the fitness parameters, I’m sure he will be very much part of the whole process,” the owner of 91 first-class wickets concluded.