IND vs NZ: "Not By Us, Not At All; Never By Us!" - Rahul Dravid's Stunning Response To Reporters' Question On Virat Kohli's Position In T20I Team

Former India captain Virat Kohli played his last T20I against England in the ICC T20 World Cup 2022 semi-finals in Australia. India head coach Rahul Dravid spoke about Virat Kohli’s place in the T20I squad during a press conference on the eve of the third One-Day International (ODI) against New Zealand.

The 34-year-old was the highest run-scorer in the marquee event with 296 runs in six matches, including four half-centuries. The Men in Blue played two T20I bilateral series after the mega event, and Virat did not play in both series. There were reports that the selectors moved away from the senior players.

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Virat Kohli regained his form after scoring a maiden T20I century against Afghanistan in the 2022 Asia Cup. He was included in the ICC Men’s T20I Team of the Year for 2022. His absence from the T20I squad has raised concerns about his future in the format.

“Till last year, Virat’s position in the T20I team was in question…” asked a journalist, when Dravid interrupted him mid-sentence and came up with a stunning response, “Not by us. Not at all, never by us!”

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We Have To Prioritise Certain Formats – Rahul Dravid

Rahul Dravid said that India’s priority is the ODI World Cup 2023 at home. Dravid said that they were given rest from the T20I series, with the amount of cricket they are playing.

“There’s a certain priority we need to give to certain white-ball tournaments at particular stages of time. With the amount of cricket we are playing – the Border-Gavaskar Trophy and the World Test Championship – there are certain white-ball tournaments that we have to prioritise, the priority after the T20 World Cup has been these six (ODI) games,” Dravid said.

“As you’ve seen, Virat has played all these six games. He’ll get a bit of a break along with Rohit and 1 or 2 other guys in the next week while we play some T20I cricket. And they come refreshed on the 2nd and we have a good week’s camp before we play Australia. So yeah it’s just priorities. We have to prioritise certain formats,” Dravid told reporters.

Virat has been part of the ODI set-up, and he played brilliant knocks in the World Cup year. He scored an ODI century after almost three years against Bangladesh in December. He continued his form against Sri Lanka at home and became the series’ highest scorer with two centuries in three matches.

India will take on New Zealand in the third and final ODI of the three-match series at the Holkar Cricket Stadium, Indore, on Tuesday, January 24.