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BCCI warns Virat Kohli: Play Ranji Trophy or no India vs England Tests for you

BCCI warns Virat Kohli: Play Ranji Trophy or no India vs England Tests for you

Kohli averages just 22.5 in the last three Test series' he's played after choosing to skip the Duleep Trophy.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) isn’t messing about. Back-to-back Test series losses, New Zealand at home and Australia away, have forced the board to take some decisions that they wouldn’t otherwise. The first and big one is that participation in domestic cricket isn’t an option but a compulsion. This seems to be a direct shot at the India cricket team’s most prolific batter at the moment, Virat Kohli.

Virat Kohli fall from grace in Test cricket

A modern batting great who’s often talked about in the same line as Sachin Tendulkar or Sunil Gavaskar, his performance hasn’t justified his greatness. In the last five years, Kohli’s averaged just 30.7 in Test cricket. Once he was sitting atop the mountain, with only Steve Smith close to him. Now, he isn’t even among the top three batters in his team.

Virat Kohli’s Test record

InningsRunsAverage100s50s
2011-2019141718354.82722
2020-Now69202830.739

2024 wasn’t great. But had the end been great, things might have been different. If the Kohli of old had returned in Australia, a nation where he was better than his own, conversations would have been different. Right now, he and his Test career stand in limbo.

Gambhir wants Kohli to play domestic cricket

For long, BCCI gave leeway to one of the greatest batters India has ever produced. The rope was longer than most players careers. Now, that rope has been cut. If Kohli wants to prove he’s still got it in him, he must prove it. Head coach Gautam Gambhir has already hinted at wanting ‘all players’ in the team to play domestic cricket.

Everyone knew it was directed towards Kohli and Rohit Sharma. However, unlike the Indian captain, Kohli had missed matches in 2024. He had made himself unavailable for the entire India vs. England Test series due to the birth of the second child. All was forgiven as India went on to lift the T20 World Cup 2024.

Skipping Duleep Trophy

But since then, he’s failed in every series. A big issue was the refusal to play in the Duleep Trophy. From June 30 to September 18, Kohli played just three matches. The BCCI had urged him and Rohit Sharma to feature in the 4-team red-ball tournament in which Rishabh Pant, Arshdeep Singh, Shubman Gill, and KL Rahul featured.

But he chose to rest even when there wasn’t any need. The result: he failed in the next three series, two of which India lost. First was a first-ever whitewash in Indian history against New Zealand. Second led to losing the Border-Gavaskar Trophy after a decade.

BCCI’s final warning to Virat Kohli

Something has to give. Kohli has to show he still has the hunger and desire. Or else, he doesn’t warrant a place in the Indian test team anymore. All eyes are now on the former skipper and whether he makes himself available for the Delhi vs. Saurashtra match in the Ranji Trophy.

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