In February last year, then-BCCI secretary Jay Shah came up with a strictly worded letter for all Indian cricketers. They needed to make themselves available for domestic cricket whenever they were not on national duty and were fit, the letter read. It even talked about “serve implications” if not followed duly. Players like Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer were the biggest examples of the “severity” mentioned in Shah’s letter, as both lost their central contracts for not making themselves available for domestic cricket without showing proper cause. But, it appears some senior members of Team India were immune to it.
Otherwise, how would you explain the prolonged absence of captain Rohit Sharma, star batter Virat Kohli, all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja, and pacer Mohammed Siraj from any form of domestic cricket?
The last time Virat Kohli played domestic cricket, Dr Manmohan Singh was India’s Prime Minister, 12-year-old Shubman Gill was in school, and Sachin Tendulkar was still playing international cricket. Yes, Kohli stopped playing domestic cricket in November 2012. That’s not it. Kohli’s last appearance in the Ranji Trophy dates back a year to Tendulkar’s last Ranji trophy, which was in October 2013.
Captain Rohit Sharma doesn’t fare much better. He last played for Mumbai in September 2016. Jadeja’s last red-ball appearance in domestic cricket was in 2023, while Siraj last turned up for Hyderabad in February 2020.
If one takes out last year’s Duleep Trophy, then KL Rahul and Shubman Gill’s domestic appearances in the last four years come down to one each, with Rahul’s last being in 2020.
Kohli, Rohit, Ashwin (now retired), and Bumrah were the only cricketers exempted from taking part in the Duleep Trophy squad, which was comprised of top-tier Indian cricketers. One can understand the exemption of Bumrah, who is a special case and should be treated with utmost care. But what about the others?
Moreover, Ravindra Jadeja and Mohammed Siraj’s names were taken out at the last minute, citing workload management. Notably, it was before India’s long home season. Rohit, Kohli, and Jadeja were all retired from T20Is and India had no Test cricket in sight for more than a month.
No domestic cricket, no runs, no wickets
The result was obvious. Kohli and Rohit looked out of sorts in the Test series against Bangladesh and New Zealand. Jadeja played his part with the bat but didn’t look in perfect rhythm with the ball, neither did Ashwin against New Zealand and Siraj picked up only six wickets in four home Tests.
The trend continued in Australia. Rohit managed just 31 runs in three Tests at an average of 6. Kohli had one second-innings century in Perth to show for but his 190 runs at an average of 23 pained a sorry tale. Gill scored cute 20s and 30s but could not carry on.
Discipline and restraint seem to have disappeared from the Indian batters’ dictionary recently. They are no longer ready to bide time and gut it out to score runs in difficult conditions.
No matter how much Kohli tries, he simply can’t control his hands when fishing for deliveries outside the off stump. Rohit’s strong point of having that extra millisecond appears to have deserted him; he is getting late on incoming deliveries and fast bouncers. Too much exposure to white-ball cricket and the lack of match practice with the red-ball can be pinpointed as the biggest reasons behind that. There is, of course, the age factor, but do not forget that these are supremely talented batters we are talking about. They have scored runs everywhere and one can’t help but think they still have it in them to go another lap. But the question is, are they willing to shed the superstar tag and get their hands dirty?
