Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli don’t deserve hatred

So, the cry to get rid of skipper Rohit Sharma and former captain Virat Kohli has reached a feverish pitch. These are the fireworks one does not want before Diwali. What makes it worse, it is not just ‘experts’ on social media, but even former cricketers who have jumped into this slugfest and started ripping apart Rohit and Kohli. Public memory is short, public memory is poor. That’s for sure. If not, two men who were paraded as champions in Mumbai after India won the ICC T20 World Cup in the West Indies will not face such caustic criticism. It is not just being critical, it has assumed proportions of being so nasty, people are questioning if these two legends know how to bat. For the record, Kohi has played 117 Tests and Rohit 63. Have they reached this far without skills and runs?

This is indeed knee-jerk reaction after losing a series to New Zealand which puts in jeopardy India’s chances of making the ICC Test Championship final. First things first, this ICC Test Championship cycle and a final in it is itself a bit of a bogus. Test cricket is as old as the willow sport. It’s just that the ICC wanted to add one more property which could be marketed. And for all those who said Test cricket would die, that’s far from truth. Each format, white ball and red ball has acceptance. Even T10 cricket is catching on, so Tests will not die.

Back to Rohit and Kohli, to suggest these batters don’t know how to play spin in Test cricket is a bit like telling Late Albert Einstein he never studied Physics. Come on, two class batters who are a gift to Indian cricket are going through a rough patch. To rile and ridicule them is bizarre. And what’s worse, to think there are half a dozen guys out there to replace them is untruth. See what happened to Sarfaraz Khan in the Pune Test, and also judge how Shubman Gill did not score a ton. Yes, India played badly in two Tests but to have made the ICC Test finals twice and lost to the Kiwis and Australia cannot be dismissed. A third entry can still happen. Have patience, place faith in the team. There are no short-cuts in sports, there will be ups and downs. Winning is a good habit but no sportsman/team wants to lose deliberately.

And as far as the two prime batters are concerned, if you don’t like them, don’t watch. To say their shelf life is over is uncharitable. Wait for the IPL retentions and auction, one will get to know what Rohit and Kohli are worth. Before anyone jumps and says that is T20 club cricket, don’t fall for that please. Cricket is cricket and these two legends have played all formats. They are masters in all three and they chose to quit T20 internationals on their own after the World Cup win. Just after that, BCCI secretary Jay Shah had proclaimed both Rohit and Virat will be there for the Champions Trophy next year. Whether it will be held in Pakistan or not, nobody knows.

Each cricketer has ups and downs especially batters. Maybe, Don Bradman was an exception. If you go through the career records of even legend Sunil Gavaskar and icon Sachin Tendulkar, they also had dry spells where they did not score runs. Nobody dared to tell Sachin he should retire. If anything, he was given a fitting farewell in the forms of a two-Test series against West Indies. That resulted in Sachin Tendulkar playing his 199^th and 200^th Test after which he retired, courtesy BCCI.

Cricket is a team sport, Rohit and Virat are jewels who have adorned it. What they have done for Indian cricket is beyond comparison. It is this new generation social media trolls which shows disrespect and wants them to retire. Why not write a letter to Ajit Agarkar, chairman of the BCCI selection committee and tell him to drop Rohit and Kohli? Does that mean India have an array of batters who can replace these two? Think before you press the trigger. To take aim at Rohit and Kohli means you don’t know cricket.