Why are India’s big stars being ‘rested’ for the WI series?

The series was a great chance for some of India’s players to get back in form.

Shikhar Dhawan will be India’s eighth captain in the last nine months when he leads the team in a three-match ODI series against West Indies in the Caribbean from July 22 to 27. The left-handed opener last led India in a limited-overs series against Sri Lanka in July 2021, but that was when a second-string squad had to be fielded since the first-team regulars were preparing for a Test series concurrently in England.

Rohit Sharma (L) with Virat Kohli (PTI)

With the matches in the Caribbean not clashing with any other commitments and no apparent injury concerns, it is understood that Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya and Mohammed Shami have all been rested for the series.

An argument could be made against resting each of these players with the possible exception of Pant (he has been playing all three formats regularly). Pandya, for instance, made a comeback to the Indian team just last month and is only part of the limited-overs set-up. But the most pressing questions are around Sharma and Kohli.

Since Sharma was appointed T20I captain in November 2021, the 35-year-old has played 9 out of 16 T20Is, three out of six ODIs and two out of eight Tests. A combination of rest, injuries and Covid has essentially meant that he has spent more time on the sidelines than on the field. Some of it has been beyond his control of course, but the consequence is that Sharma and head coach Rahul Dravid haven’t been able to forge a partnership and stamp their imprint on the team after the exit of the Kohli-Ravi Shastri combine.

“It’s been challenging. We have got six captains in the last eight months, which actually wasn’t the plan when I started,” Dravid told Star Sports after the conclusion of the T20I home series against South Africa last month.

The decision for Sharma to be rested in such a scenario seems to defy logic. While workload management is necessary considering the amount of cricket India play, it’s hard to make a case for it at the moment.

“I don’t know what has transpired. But ideally speaking, you would love to have these cricketers in the squad,” said former India wicketkeeper and selector Saba Karim. “If there is a genuine reason for a player missing, I can understand. Otherwise, it is the selectors who hold the key to all this because they are the ones who are building the side and picking the team. I can understand Pant getting a break since he is one player who has played all formats including the recently completed home series against SA. But I don’t think the others have had such a hectic schedule. I don’t know what’s happening. It is difficult when there are so many captains. You need to have some kind of strategy in place and all that will happen when you have a regular captain in position.”

Kohli’s absence is equally contentious. Now it’s unclear whether he requested for a break or the selectors opted to rest him, but three ODIs in the Caribbean provided an ideal opportunity for Kohli to regain his form and get that monkey off his back. Even during this lean run – he hasn’t scored an international ton since November 2019 — he has managed to rack up ten half-centuries in 21 ODI innings.

By missing matches in a format that he has bossed, he is risking the possibility of the three-figure mark deserting him for longer, a far from ideal situation going into the T20 World Cup in Australia in October and November. The selectors wouldn’t want to find themselves in a situation where they have to take an incredibly hard call on the eve of the World Cup.

“With the T20 World Cup coming up, they should have played. They are the most important members of the team,” said former India left-arm spinner and selector Venkatapathy Raju. “It would have been ideal (for someone like Kohli) to regain match form. Practice is different. Rohit should have also been in the Caribbean. He needs to understand the team as skipper.”

And just in case the selectors had concluded that this three-match series was an opportunity to give more playing time to the second rung, couldn’t they have looked at a younger candidate for captaincy as well? Dhawan has a shrewd cricketing brain no doubt, but he turns 37 in December and is confined to playing just 50-over cricket. Curiously, Ravindra Jadeja has been named deputy just a couple of months after resigning as Chennai Super Kings skipper midway through the 2022 IPL season.

There could have been more clarity on these calls if chief selector Chetan Sharma had addressed a press conference after the selection to explain the committee’s rationale, but that’s perhaps asking for too much.