Asia Cup 2018, which starts from the 15th of this month, has been dealt an early blow by the BCCI, which decided to ‘rest’ Indian skipper Virat Kohli for the tournament. In his absence, Rohit Sharma will captain the side.
Other prominent updates from the squad announced are the returns of Ambati Rayudu, Kedar Jadhav and Manish Pandey with Umesh Yadav and Siddarth Kaul missing out. The biggest name to be dropped is Suresh Raina.
SK Prasad, chairman of the senior selection panel said, “[Kohli] has been playing for quite sometime and looking at the workload we have given him the rest… We need to preserve our precious players who play all three formats and looking at that workload issue we decided to rest him for the Asia Cup.”
Amir dismissing Kohli
While Raina might be the biggest name to be dropped, of course the most illustrious name to miss out on the tournament altogether is Kohli. Not only is he the mainstay of the Indian batting lineup and the most prolific run-scorer in the world, he is arguably the biggest name in the world of cricket right now.
Hence, the decision to ‘rest’ Virat Kohli for the Asia Cup is absolutely mindboggling.Even if Prasad’s argument with regards to overworked players absolutely holds weight, to choose this tournament to rest your best player smacks of disrespect if not blatant arrogance.
Asia Cup is the tournament where the continent’s elite meet to determine who the best side is. This is cricket’s equivalent of European Championship or Copa America. Would Portugal rest Ronaldo for the Euros or would Argentina rest Lionel Messi for the Copa America?
Of course, the analogy isn’t watertight, for those are the second most illustrious international tournaments for the teams and players in question, while the same isn’t true for Asia Cup. But surely there are other tournaments or matches where Kohli could have been spared additional playing time.
Considering the amount of cricket being played these days, those cricketers that participate in all three formats – in addition to the T20 league(s) – can definitely face the prospect of burning out. Even in Pakistan’s case, Mohammed Amir is occasionally rested owing to his significant work load.
But Amir was rested for the Zimbabwe series, for instance. Kohli is being rested for a tournament where India and Pakistan could face each other thrice, in what is without doubt the biggest fixture in all of sport.
With Mohammed Amir
With Shahid Afridi
There could be two factors behind the choice of Asia Cup as the tournament to rest Kohli. Maybe Cricket India is so confident about being the best side in Asia – which on paper they are – that they believe they can win it all without Kohli, and in doing so set the benchmark for the chasing pack, among which is the Pakistan cricket team.
The second and more sinister factor could be the BCCI’s animosity with regards to playing Pakistan, owing to which it has tried to relegate the Asia Cup’s pedigree by choosing to make India’s star player sit out of it. But it’s the same board that was loudly upset at the scheduling around the India Pakistan match, saying that their rivals had more rest than their own side.
What is undoubted is the fact that Indo-Pak clashes and the Asia Cup will suffer from Kohli’s absence, and the crowds in the UAE which would throng the contests definitely stand to miss out on the prospect of watching one of the greatest cricketers in the world right now.
