Former Pakistan cricketer Rashid Latif claimed that Indian senior duo Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli are being targeted for their red-ball form and are forced to play domestic cricket ahead of the crucial white-ball assignments. India Test and ODI captain Rohit turned up for Mumbai in their ongoing Ranji Trophy match against Jammu & Kashmir. He scored three and 28 runs in the match. On the other hand, Kohli will join Delhi's squad for the match against Railways at Arun Jaitley Stadium from January 30.
Other than the star duo, members of the Test squad that faced a 1-3 defeat in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series against Australia are also featuring for their respective state sides for the latest round of Ranji Trophy matches. The other notable players include Yashasvi Jaiswal (Mumbai), Rishabh Pant (Delhi), Ravindra Jadeja (Saurashtra) and Shubman Gill (Punjab).
According to former Pakistan wicketkeeper-batter, Rohit and Kohli should focus on their upcoming white-ball assignments against England and next month's Champions Trophy in Dubai.
Latif said that due to the busy international calendar, players don't get much time to play domestic cricket. He went on to say that the star duo played two World Cup finals in the last two years without playing domestic cricket.
"There is no time for players to play domestic cricket due to the packed international calendar. If needed they should play domestic cricket but due to the targeting of Rohit (Sharma) and Virat (Kohli), they're forcing everyone to play domestic cricket. In the past, barring Sachin Tendulkar, others have not played much domestic cricket... Rohit and Virat have won the T20 World Cup and reached the final of the ODI World Cup without playing domestic cricket. They will next play the ODI series against England so they should prepare for it as white-ball is a totally different game," Latif told IANS.
Rohit and Kohli will be seen in the three-match ODI series against England starting on February 6. Both teams are currently playing the five-match T20I series, India started with an emphatic win at Eden Gardens in Kolkata in the first T20I.
--IANS
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source https://sports.ndtv.com/cricket/rohit-sharma-virat-kohli-forced-to-play-domestic-cricket-bcci-sent-warning-from-pakistan-7555040
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