Asia Cup 2018: Sandeep Patil Questions BCCI's Decision To Rest Skipper Virat Kohli

Former India cricketer Sandeep Patil has questioned BCCI’s decision to rest skipper Virat Kohli for the upcoming Asia Cup. The decision has already attracted widespread criticism and the reasons are quite obvious.

While there is no denying the fact that Kohli deserves a break, what has landed BCCI in a soup is the timing of their decision. Kohli recently returned to India after a three-month tour of United Kingdom where India played 5 T20Is, three ODIs and 5 Tests with Kohli featuring in all of the games.

But one should remember that Kohli had not played for around a month before the T20I series started in Ireland. Moreover, the BCCI’s decision to rest him for the Asia Cup and not the West Indies series that will be played after the tournament has raised several eyebrows. And Sandeep Patil is not an exception either.

Writing in The Quint, the former BCCI selector questioned the selectors’ decision to rest Kohli for such an important event.

“Every child who takes up cricket, dreams of playing for the country. However, lately, after the introduction of T-20 cricket, many of our own players have been seen opting out of national duty to make themselves available and fit for the cash-rich IPL.

The latest blow came when Indian selectors decided to give a break to Virat Kohli from next week’s Asia Cup. As a former chairman of the selection committee, I do agree that players’ workload should be taken into account. But when it comes to India-Pakistan matches – in which the cricket-loving people of India get so emotionally and sentimentally involved – it makes it difficult to understand why such a decision was made. In fact, it is not just the fans, even players and board officials of both the countries feel very strongly about this one big match-up,” he wrote.

He further questioned the timing of the decision.

“The decision to give rest to Virat Kohli has already been taken but the question is whether selectors could have delayed it by picking Virat for the Asia Cup and giving him rest instead during the home series against West Indies that will follow.”

Patil then went on to question the preferential treatment of Kohli before insisting that winning the Asia Cup would give the fans more happiness than winning against West Indies.

“I don’t blame Virat Kohli but my question again is that there are thirty plus players under contract for the BCCI and all of them play equal number of matches and share equal amount of workload, then why single out Virat Kohli?

“If you were to ask whether winning a series against West Indies or the Asia Cup title –which would bring more honour and joy to our players, BCCI and sports lovers, the answer is very simple – an Asia Cup victory. And that too when a team like Pakistan is involved,” he wrote.

In Kohli’s absence, Rohit Sharma will lead the side. India are the defending champions, having won the competition two years ago although it was a T20I format. India will open their campaign against Qualifiers Hong Kong on September 18. On the very next day, they will take on Pakistan.