Virat Kohli laments lack of rest time; accuses BCCI of poor planning

11/23/2017

BCCI

Virat Kohli has criticized the BCCI for their poor scheduling of games which deprives most players of rest between the series. He also admitted that the lack of rest before the South Africa tour was the main reason he had asked for South African conditions while playing against Sri Lanka.

It is difficult to recall the last time that the entire Indian team had been given time to rest between series. Since their ICC Champions Trophy final loss to Pakistan, the Men in Blue have hardly had any time to breathe. After the eight-team tournament, India travelled to West Indies and Sri Lanka for full-fledged tours before hosting Australia and New Zealand for limited over series in their own backyard. Currently, the Indian side is contesting in an ongoing three-match Test series against Sri Lanka which would be followed by six limited overs matches, split equally between ODIs and T20Is.

After a two-month long Sri Lanka series, that ends on December 24, India will start the next year with a tiring South Africa tour on January 5. While the rotation policy has made sure that most players get rest between the different formats, there are some players who haven’t been afforded this luxury for almost half a year. With critics already denigrating BCCI’s decision to schedule a month-long series just before the South Africa tour, Kohli has openly questioned the same in the pre-match press conference ahead of the second Test match against Sri Lanka in Nagpur.

“As usual cramped for time, which I think we needed to assess in future as well because we very easily assess the team when go abroad but we don't look at how many days we have got to prepare before we go to a particular place to play. And everyone starts judging players when results come after Test matches. It should be a fair game where we get to prepare the way we want to and then we are entitled to be criticized,” Kohli said, reported PTI.

After the covers came off after a rain-interrupted first day in Kolkata, the lush green Eden Gardens pitch had everyone talking, and the skipper admitted that he had asked for a pitch that resembled South African conditions while playing against Sri Lanka.

“Yes, because we get only two days before we fly to South Africa after this series gets over. So, we have no choice but be in game situation and think of what's coming ahead of us. Had we got a month off ideally, we would have done a proper preparation in a camp sort of scenario, but we have to sort of make do with what we have,” said Kohli.

“As I said, we want to embrace being in difficult conditions. I am not saying that everyone will go out and perform immediately but if we can feel comfortable about it after one or two or three innings, someone will come good.”

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