Dilip Vengsarkar questions decision to rest Virat Kohli

Dilip Vengsarkar has questioned the Board of Control for Cricket in India's (BCCI) decision to rest Virat Kohli on India’s tour of the West Indies.

Kohli has not been playing well recently. At the end of the tour of England, he failed with the bat in all three formats. Despite not scoring runs, the decision to rest him invited criticism from Vengsarkar. He said it was a poor decision, and Kohli should be allowed to play more games to regain his form.

“I don’t understand why the Indian selectors have rested him for the West Indies series. If he is in their scheme of things for the T20 World Cup in Australia, he should play as many games as possible to get his form and confidence back. That would help him," Vengsarkar told Khaleej Times.

“Resting him sends a wrong signal because if he is going to Australia, then he will go without really big scores behind him. That would worry him as well. I always feel that when you are not scoring runs, it’s important to play as many matches as possible and spend time in the middle, and get back among the runs. This game is all about confidence."

Vengsarkar then went on to compare Kohli to Sachin Tendulkar.

"If you take the example of Sachin Tendulkar in 2004, he was getting out in the same way in Australia. So, he cut off that scoring area completely and scored 241 in the last Test match of that series, without playing the cover drive. Similarly, Virat also has the ability to do the same, he needs to work hard in that area and play effectively," Vengsarkar said.

Kohli is not the only player that has been rested for the ODI series. With Jasprit Bumrah being one of them, Shikhar Dhawan was appointed the stand-in captain for the match against West Indies. However, except for Kohli and Bumrah, most of the regular players are slated to return for the T20 International series.

This is the second time Kohli gets rested from international cricket. Earlier, he was also rested for a home T20I series against South Africa. That being said, there have been reports saying that Kohli would be traveling to play the ODI series in Zimbabwe in August.

Poor form

During the India tour of England, Kohli scored 11 and 20 in the Edgbaston Test. After delivering a somewhat disappointing run at Edgbaston, he played two T20I and ODI matches where he could only register one and 11 in the T20Is and 16 and 17 in the second and third ODI, respectively.

Kohli’s 17 runs in the final match between IND vs ENG ODI Series had him register his fifth consecutive score below 20 in the ODI format.

Regardless, Kohli has scored 23,693 runs in all three formats throughout his career so far. At a career average, he scored 53.72, which is considerably better than Tendulkar, the world's all-time top scorer. Kohli also scored 70 centuries, which consists of 43 ODI centuries and 27 centuries in Tests matches.

Kohli will participate in the 2022 Asia Cup, which will begin in the last week of August.