Published December 29, 2022
By Pawan Atri · 4 min read
Netizens mocked India batting maestro Virat Kohli after he was left out of the national squad for next month’s T20I series against Sri Lanka. Though the Indian selectors made many changes like dropping the veteran Bhuvneshwar Kumar from the T20I side and Shikhar Dhawan from the One-Day International team, it was Virat Kohli’s exclusion that grabbed the limelight. India’s batting mainstay’s removal came as a surprise to both his fans and former cricketers, considering the batting maestro was the top scorer in last month’s T20 World Cup in Australia.
However, as the news started gaining traction on the internet, Virat Kohli haters began trolling him as they posted memes and jokes to hit out at him.
“Dropped from the wrong format. He should continue playing T20s and ODIs. Must retire from test cricket,” a Twitter user wrote.
“More than that bigger shock is KL Rahul retained for ODI. Wondering what sort of pressure BCCI is under to retain such a waste,” another added.
Don't know why Virat Kohli isn't playing t20 series against Sri Lanka.#INDvsSL
BCCI to BCCI to
Virat Kohli Virat Kohli when
in bilateral series world cup is near pic.twitter.com/HcStkUBFyH
— Akshat (@AkshatOM10) December 27, 2022
Virat Kohli dropped from Indian T20I squad.
End of fraud era (2010-2022) pic.twitter.com/rk7MfpHzhT
— Elliot Alderson. (@rovvmut_) December 28, 2022
Kohli should retire now for a respectful farewell.
— LAVKESH PANDEY (@KumarLavkesh) December 27, 2022
Yess, BCCI don't want Virat Kohli to play T20 Cricket anymore. They want him to take retirement?. So that young cricketers can play next WC? Hope God is watching ??️
— Godfather¹⁸??? (@ViratGodFather) December 27, 2022
I said few times bogi man has been out of form 4 years struggling. He's over. He was good years ago . But now bcci realised he's burden. King ?
— Azhar Hussain (@AzharHu32178465) December 28, 2022
Meanwhile, cricket pundit Sanjay Manjrekar, suggested that he may have been rested and not “dropped”.
“Virat Kohli had a pretty good World Cup,” Sanjay Manjrekar said on ESPNCricinfo. “I would have liked him to play as much international cricket as possible, just to be amongst the runs, hitting the ball virtually every week and be prepared for the match situation is a good thing. The thing is Virat Kohli will now constantly face pressure from others who are getting opportunities in his place.”
“We have seen what the young players have done like Ishan Kishan and Sanju Samson when they’ve got the opportunity. So, yes, Virat Kohli is still very much in the plans after the World Cup he had and I’m sure he wants to keep being a member in the T20 side,” the former India batter added.
“Since this is 2023, the World Cup year, I guess India are looking to give him more one-day time and one-day cricket is a great format to get back into form. That is where Virat Kohli has shown he is an all-time great in the way he has played over the years, the consistency, and the match-winning ability,” Sanjay Manjrekar concluded.
Like Sanjay Manjrekar, Virat Kohli’s childhood coach Rajkumar Sharma reckons that the talismanic batter may have not been dropped from the national T20I squad and could very well have been rested from the series against Sri Lanka.
“There is still no clarity regarding his exclusion from the T20 squad. Since there is no official e-mail or any confirmation over the same, we don’t know if he has been dropped, or if he himself asked for rest. I don’t think it’s right to say that he has been dropped,” Rajkumar Sharma said on India News.
“There is no major T20 competition coming up, and there is still a lot of time left for the next World Cup. These guys were there for the Test matches in Bangladesh, and most of them are also available for the ODI series against Sri Lanka,” the veteran coach mentioned.
“Virat Kohli might have been given rest as a lot of other senior players aren’t in the T20 team either. The team management has rested these guys and given the youngsters an opportunity. I don’t think they would replace players like them without having any conversations with them,” Rajkumar Sharma summed up.
Virat Kohli’s alleged axing from India’s T20I series came days after he had a series of miserable outings against Bangladesh in the two Tests there as he only scored 45 runs in four knocks.
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With his dismal performance against Bangladesh, Virat Kohli equaled his worst-ever run in the five-day version of the game, having not scored a fifty in his last 10 innings.
The only previous time the former India captain recorded such numbers was in 2014 when he could only make 134 runs during a terrible tour of England when James Anderson made him his bunny. Virat Kohli left the shores of the United Kingdom with an average of 13.40 in five Tests.
His last 10 knocks in Tests have been pathetic, to say the least, and his scores in all these innings read as 1 & 24 vs Bangladesh in the second Test, 19* & 1 vs Bangladesh in the first Test, 20 & 11 vs England, 13 & 23 vs Sri Lanka in the second Test, 45 vs Sri Lanka in the first Test and 29 vs South Africa in the second essay of the third Test.
India squad for Sri Lanka T20Is: Hardik Pandya (Captain), Ishan Kishan (wk), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shubman Gill, Suryakumar Yadav (VC), Deepak Hooda, Rahul Tripathi, Sanju Samson, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Harshal Patel, Umran Malik, Shivam Mavi, Mukesh Kumar.
India squad for Sri Lanka ODIs: Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Hardik Pandya (VC), Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Umran Malik, Arshdeep Singh.
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