Picture Credit: X
Former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar took to his official X account to question the Indian selection committee for not picking Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and Jasprit Bumrah for the upcoming edition of the Duleep Trophy, starting on September 5. The 59-year-old shared numbers around how many per cent of matches these three stalwarts have played in the last five years for India, to make his point about not resting these players anymore.
Before the start of the 2024-25 domestic cricket season in India, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) revamped the Duleep Trophy format, reducing the number of teams from six to four, which features most of the Indian internationals. The notable absentees from these four teams were Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and Jasprit Bumrah, ahead of the two-match Test series at home versus Bangladesh, beginning on September 19.
Kohli, Rohit, and Bumrah could have been selected for the Duleep trophy: Sanjay Manjrekar
With no match practice ahead of an elongated season of Test match cricket for three of the stalwarts of Indian cricket, Sanjay Manjrekar wondered whether the Ajit-Agarkar led selection committee could have picked them for the Duleep Trophy. He wrote on X, “India has played 249 international matches in the last 5 years. Rohit has played only 59% of those. Virat 61 % & Bumrah 34%. I see them as well rested India players. Could have been selected for the Duleep trophy.”
At the same time, it is important to note that Virat Kohli (146 matches) and Rohit Sharma (142 matches) are in fourth and fifth places respectively, in the list of most matches played in international cricket in the last five years. They are only behind three other Asian cricketers namely Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan, and Litton Das in this list.
Moreover, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, and Umran Malik, who were initially picked in the Duleep Trophy teams, will not be taking part in the red-ball tournament for different reasons.
