shadow

Former India captain Mohammad Azharuddin said that the timing of Rohit Sharma’s injury ahead of the Test series and Virat Kohli’s break from ODI matches against South Africa substantiates speculation about the rift between the two stalwarts.

Azharuddin took to social media to point out his concern over Kohli’s break and Sharma’s injury. “Virat Kohli has informed that he’s not available for the ODI series & Rohit Sharma is unavailable fr d upcoming test. There is no harm in taking a break but d timing has to be better. This just substantiates speculation abt d rift. Neither will be giving up d another form of cricket,” Azharuddin tweeted.

Kohli is expected to sit out of the three-match ODI series against South Africa in a development that comes after the BCCI said that limited-overs captain Rohit Sharma would miss the preceding three-match Test series. While the BCCI is yet to make an official statement about Kohli’s participation in the ODI series, sources have said that the 32-year-old will be sitting out due to “personal reasons”.

With both the skippers of the Indian team not playing a particular format, there are reports that the two players do not want to play under each other and there is a possible rift between them.

However, Rohit, in an interview with BCCI, said that his predecessor Virat Kohli led from the front in the five years that he was captain and he is looking forward to enjoying the matches that the pair will play with each other in the future.

Rohit was Kohli’s vice-captain in limited-overs cricket for the duration of the latter’s captaincy, which started in a full-time capacity in January 2017 with MS Dhoni stepping down from the role.

“We had a great time playing under him. I have played a lot of cricket with him and enjoyed each and every moment and I will still continue to do that. We need to keep getting better as a team and as individuals and that will be the focus for not just me but for the entire squad moving forward,” Rohit said.

Author

India today

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *