Kolkata: India skipper Virat Kohli on Wednesday said that when he feels he needs rest, he will ask for it.
Reports were circulating that Kohli has asked the Indian selectors for rest after the second Test against Sri Lanka and for the succeeding One-Day International (ODI) series.
Chief National Selector M.S.K. Prasad, though, refuted all rumours later saying that Kohli had made himself available for selection for all the three Test matches and the selectors would look at resting the skipper only after that.
“Definitely I do need rest, why don’t I need rest? When I think of the time my body should be rested, I’ll ask for it. I am not a robot you can slice my skin and check I bleed,” Kohli told reporters on the eve of India’s first Test against Sri Lanka at the Eden Gardens from Thursday.
Asked about managing the workload with all-rounder Hardik Pandya being rested for the first two Tests, Kohli said players who give that much extra on the field need rest and the situation is sometimes not understood by all.
“This is one thing which I don’t think people explain properly. There is a lot of talk from the outside in terms of workload — whether a player should be rested or should not be rested. All cricketers play 40 games in a year. Three guys who should get rest, their workloads are to be managed. 11 players play the game but not everyone would have batted 45 overs in an ODI game or not everyone would have bowled 30 overs in a Test match,” Kohli assessed.
“But the ones who are doing it regularly need to be assessed because the body takes that much time to recover. People only look at ‘oh everyone has played 40 games’. They don’t look at time spent on the crease.
“The number of runs that have been run between the wicket, the number of overs bowled in difficult conditions, what were the conditions, what were the temperatures like, have the bodies recovered or not — I don’t think people go into that analysis. So from the outside it looks like ‘why are people asking for rest, everyone has played same number of games’.
Persistent rain is threatening to hold up the first Test on Thursday when India begin their three-match home series against Sri Lanka.
The sides met only recently, when India toured Sri Lanka in July and August and emphatically won 3-0.
Sri Lanka recovered from that poor showing to beat Pakistan 2-0 in a home test series — albeit played in the United Arab Emirates — but India will once again look to stamp its authority on this contest as the world’s top-ranked test side.
Neither side could practice properly on Wednesday because of incessant showers. The forecast is not good for Thursday and Friday and the weather is only expected to clear up from Saturday onwards.
It has affected ground staff, too. The pitch at the Eden Gardens was lush green on Monday, and staff working there only managed to shave off a little.
Given this, India captain Virat Kohli expects a green pitch for the first Test.
“It looks like a sporting wicket,” he said. “We want to play in different conditions and perform well.”
Sri Lanka has a hard task ahead but remains cautiously optimistic. “India played some good cricket in the past two years. They have worked hard in different areas and their number one rank is justified,” Sri Lankan captain Dinesh Chandimal said. “It will be an uphill task for us. But we have our plans in place and could surprise them.”
But the one batsman who impressed during the 3-0 home loss to India -Kusal Mendis — has been dropped after scoring only 48 runs in two Tests against Pakistan.
