Five matches in the Asia Cup (six, if India reach the final), three against Australia and two warm-up matches - 10 one-day internationals. That's all, that's the handful of matches that the 2011 world champions will play ahead of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023. One would say, that's enough for the build-up and ideally, they should be if it was England, Australia, South Africa, or any other side, which has a settled line-up without them even playing the format in recent times. But with India struggling to field their first-choice playing XI, the same can't be said given how inconsistent they have been with their selections.
India's chances and the line-up depend so much on the fitness of Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul and Jasprit Bumrah that the team management is ready to give them ample time to recover and has started looking for backups in their potential absence. Ishan Kishan has been given regular chances and similarly with Suryakumar Yadav, who despite repeated failures has been backed. However, surprisingly both captain Rohit Sharma and former skipper Virat Kohli have been rested for the series.
Two months before the World Cup when the line-up is not set, the management isn't sure who will be available amongst the ones injured and Kohli and Rohit chose to stay away from the series. Rohit and Kohli have been in terrific form in the ODIs in 2023 when they were playing against Sri Lanka and New Zealand. Against Australia, Kohli scored 4, 31 and 54 and Rohit returned scores of 13 and 30 in two matches he played.
With Asia Cup less than a month away and India not playing any ODI after the West Indies series, Rohit and Kohli's absence was bizarre, especially when both were there in the squad. Either they should have not been in the squad altogether in the first place and if they were, they should have played considering they will be playing their first ODI in five months against Pakistan in the Asia Cup.
Leaving both out of the squad might have brought severe criticism as it would not have given a good look - 'two biggest players resting out of the ODI series in a World Cup year' - but being in the squad and then missing the games looks even worse.
Head coach Rahul Dravid had admitted that they could afford to lose a game or two in their attempt to experiment and hence he and the team management walked the talk by resting Kohli and Rohit for two games in a row, for players who wouldn't be in the first XI come the World Cup, it just doesn't make sense.
Rohit and Kohli already haven't played ODIs regularly over the last few years and when the management specifically said at the start of the year that the seniors would focus on the 50-over format with an eye on the World Cup, them playing two Test matches against a team like West Indies was rather astonishing.
Both Rohit and Kohli will now play straight away on September 2 against Pakistan and if the team management complains of the players being rusty if the team doesn't perform well, then who will take the blame? Your guess is as good as mine
