“Rohit Sharma & Virat Kohli were rested by mutual consent” : Rahul Dravid on resting the star batters for two ODIs vs Australia

The decision to rest Captain Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli for the first two ODIs against Australia was a collaborative one, as stated by India’s head coach, Rahul Dravid. The eagerly awaited three-match series commences this Friday at the PCA Stadium in Mohali

Upon the announcement of India’s 15-man squad on Monday night, there was a flurry of discussion within the cricket community, with many questioning the need for these senior players to take breaks. In response to this, the head coach of Indian cricket clarified that the primary objective behind these rests was to ensure their mental freshness in preparation for the upcoming ODI World Cup.

Rahul Dravid said “With people like Virat and Rohit specifically, from our perspective, it’s really important that we get them to that first game of the World Cup, physically and mentally in the space that they want to be in. At this level, with the amount of cricket that they’ve played, they know how they need to prepare themselves. A lot of these decisions are made in discussion in them – all our players, not only the two of them. But certainly, the senior and the more experienced guys kind of have their routines and know what they need to do to get into that first game just in the right frame of mind.”

“We discuss with them on how best they’d like to prepare in the lead-up to big events like the World Cup. And we came up with mutual decisions on deciding that these two games were good for them to take off, just to refresh mentally more than anything else. And then come back in Rajkot and then it’s going to be a tough couple of months ahead for us,” the coach later added on.