July 10, KATHMANDU : Former Indian captain Kapil Dev said that Team India must prioritize playing in-form players over the ones with big reputations.
This statement comes when the form of former skipper Virat Kohli across all formats has been a concern over a year and a half or so. However, players like Deepak Hooda have taken advantage of his absence in recent T20I games by playing an explosive brand of cricket. Hooda scored a quick-fire century against Ireland and an aggressive 33 in the first T20I against England.
Other batters like Shreyas Iyer are also presenting a strong case to be a part of Indian middle-over over the last year.
“Play in-form players when you have loads of options. You cannot just go by reputation, but you have to look for the current form. You can be an established player but that does not mean that you will be given chances even if you fail five games in a row,” ICC quoted the former Indian skipper as saying to social media.
Dev also added that if a bowler of spinner Ravichandran Ashwin calibre could be left out of the Test side, so could Virat Kohli. Ashwin did not feature in a single match in the recently concluded five-match Test series against England.
“If world No. 2 Test bowler Ashwin can be dropped from Test side then your No. 1 batter can also be dropped,” Kapil stated.
The former skipper believes that such competition for places would turn out to be positive for the Indian team, as they are preparing for the T20 World Cup in Australia.
“If he is not performing, you cannot continue to keep these boys out. I hope there is a healthy fight for selection, the youngsters should look to outperform Kohli. But Kohli needs to think, ‘Yes at one point I was a big player, but I need to play like that No. 1 player again’. That is a problem for the team, it is not a bad problem,” he concluded.
