Ravi Shastri’s valuable advice for Virat Kohli ahead of India-Australia Test series, Rohit-Virat to play Ranji Trophy?: Former team India head coach Ravi Shastri reckons Virat Kohli must pull out of the final ODI against New Zealand, which will be held in Indore on Jan 24, and take part in the Ranji Trophy games to be in the best possible form for the upcoming test series against Australia, which starts on February 9 in Nagpur.
Notably, team India will take guard against New Zealand in the remaining two ODI games on January 21st and 24th respectively and the next set of matches in the Ranji Trophy will also begin on the 24th of January, which makes it a perfect setting for the Indian batter to hone his skills before the ultimate test against Australia.
It is important to note that, Virat has already regained his form in white ball format and is enjoying a wonderful time in the middle, however, his bat hasn’t talked a lot in the tests yet since his pale patch. Despite scoring brilliantly in the ODIs, Virat Kohli couldn’t do any good in the test series against Bangladesh.
“I’ve always believed you play more first-class cricket, especially when you are going to play a lot in India. Just feel top players don’t play enough first-class cricket,” said Ravi Shastri while being on-air for Star Sports during the first ODI between India and New Zealand.
Shastri, who coached an injury-plagued Indian side during India’s famous Border Gavaskar Trophy win in 2021, added right now the bigger picture is Australia as the four-match test series against Australia will decide India’s fate in the ICC World Test Championship final.
He added, “There’s a lot of cricket around, you might not want to take the risk. But at times you’ve got to be smart and sacrifice certain games looking at the bigger picture. And the big picture is Australia.”
The cricketer turned commentator cited Sachin Tendulkar as an example, who followed a similar path during his time. He said: “25 years ago, Sachin Tendulkar went to play in CCI against the Australian team and got a double hundred. Two months later in 1998, he had above 1000 runs against Australia in all formats.”
He got a terrific double hundred and Australia knew that they didn’t get that man early the writing was on the wall.”
Rohit & Virat should play Ranji: Harsha Bhogle
Renowned broadcaster Harsha Bhogle was on the same line with Ravi Shastri as he advised both the Indian stalwarts to feature in the Ranji Trophy. Keeping in mind how important the test series against Australia is, Bhogle suggested Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli move out of the ODI setup for the final game on the 24th and join the Ranji Trophy squad before playing against Australia.
“I really think it will be a good idea for Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma to play the Ranji Trophy starting on the 24th instead of the last ODI. At the moment, the multi-format players tend to go straight from white ball cricket into test cricket,” wrote Harsha Bhogle in his tweet.
In Ranji Trophy games Virat’s home side Delhi will play against Hyderabad at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad while Rohit Sharma’s home side Mumbai will take guard against Maharashtra at the Brabourne Stadium on 24th January 2023.
