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Is Kohli right to skip a Test to play English county cricket?

Virat Kohli and his attitude are key to India's success. (AFP PHOTO / SAEED KHAN)
Roar Guru
6th May, 2018
12

The biggest cricket news this weekend was that Virat Kohli will be joining Surrey for the entire fixture in the month of June.

Many have applauded the decision, including former England captain Naseer Hussein, though a few, including England’s assistant coach, don’t seem too pleased with Kohli getting match practice ahead of the all-important five-match Test series.

In a bid to improve his previous record – his horrible 2014 tour where he averaged 13 with 134 runs across five Tests, comparing poorly to his average of 53 in 50-odd Test matches, is still something talked about.

In 2016-17, when Virat was scoring 100s and 200s against a visiting England side, James Anderson was asked what the difference was between Virat back in 2014 and now. His response was to dismiss talk that Virat’s really improved; rather, he suggested unless he makes a much bigger impact on the same soil, he can’t be called an improved player.

While talking about greatest batsman today Virat’s names obviously comes up, but that’s still argued considering his record in swinging conditions in the UK over that of his contemporary Steve Smith, who scored 215 at Lord’s to go with a couple of hundreds he has at Kia Oval.

Virat has got the chance to better that record, and with a county stint he wants to be taking a step in right direction.

But his decision has sparked off controversy: should he have played in the one-off Test against Afghanistan? Don’t you want your best 11 to play the ultimate format of the game, and isn’t Test cap earned? Won’t that be robbing the Test of the attention it deserved?

India's captain Virat Kohli

(AFP Photo / Saeed Khan)

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No Test can be considered ‘just another match’. You always want to be fielding the best side, but the real fact is Afghanistan and Ireland got the right to play Test cricket back in 2017 until the 2019 World Cup was decided.

It was supposed to be an off-season for the team, and teams were scheduled to leave early to get used to condition early, which would have helped them improve their performances from ball one. In today’s cramped schedule a cricketer doesn’t play three or four warm-ups like earlier generations would have; the window to play isn’t there and boards have become smarter by not fielding top cricketers for the warm-ups, denying the opportunity to play some tough matches.

In the previous tour of South Africa in early 2017 one regret India had was not getting an extra ten days which would have ensured players got adequate practice. The result was tight as India came close to beating South Africa at home for the first time, but batting rued their chances.

Considering all this, was that a bad decision? Certainly not. To have an adequate window for overseas tours and getting done with no-brainer series like Sri Lanka tours could have helped, but cricket board have demanded better schedules through to 2019 and later.

Is skipping a Test right? Absolutely not, but the bigger picture is far more important, and as emotional as we get for Test matches, you also need to adapt or perish in these changing times.

Jammed schedules, which include playing for leagues, burnout is an issue that has to be dealt with and hence player rotation is justified in shorter-format games. The longer format should still stay untouched, with only select best playing the ultimate format of the game.

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