All three of them had a mediocre series against New Zealand, which India lost 3-0
The Indian selectors wanted senior players to feature in at least one Duleep Trophy game before the start of the home season but they refused to play the domestic tournament (September 5 – 22), citing “lack of motivation”, the Indian Express reported after Rohit Sharma’s men were whitewashed 3-0 by New Zealand, becoming the first Indian team to get whitewashed (minimum three Tests) at home.
According to the report, “the selection committee planned for all top players to be available for the Duleep Trophy in order to provide them some match practice before the red-ball season. Rohit and (Virat) Kohli, along with other key players, gave their consent initially. However, some of the top players later decided to withdraw their names and went into the two Tests against Bangladesh (in September) and the three against New Zealand without much recent red-ball cricket under their belt.”
“When Sharma, Kohli, R Ashwin, and Jasprit Bumrah didn’t participate in the Duleep Trophy, the selection committee decided to release Ravindra Jadeja, who had agreed to play in the domestic tournament,” Devendra Pandey reported for the Indian Express.
Most of the aforementioned players struggled against New Zealand and Bangladesh. In these five Tests, Kohli could only score 192 runs @ 21.33, while Rohit managed just 133 runs at an average of 13.3. Between them, there were only two 50-plus scores in 20 innings. Jadeja did well with the ball but could only average 24.88 with the bat.
Ashwin too was very mediocre against New Zealand, picking up nine wickets in six innings at an average of 41.2 and a strike rate of 65.3. Meanwhile, Bumrah too could only take three wickets in two Tests at an average of 42.3. Shubman Gill, Sarfaraz Khan, Rishabh Pant, Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul and Washington Sundar were the ones who did feature in the Duleep Trophy and most of them did fairly well against Bangladesh and New Zealand.
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Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar said: “They should have had some practice, definitely. It’s a long gap. I know we beat Bangladesh and therefore, it looked as if it was going to be a cakewalk against New Zealand. But New Zealand, obviously, had a better attack, with cricketers who have played in India and in the IPL, who have a sense of what Indian pitches do.
“What I would say to them is just forget it. Forget it as a bad dream. Just totally focus on Australia. Go there, practise with purpose and with the intent of trying to win the series again for the third time. Whether you win 1-0, 2-0, 2-1, whatever. That’s the one thing that will lift the Indian cricket-loving public.”
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