India vs South Africa: Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Jasprit Bumrah get a break before England tour
India Today
India v South Africa: KL Rahul has been named captain of an 18-man T20I squad that will not have Test regulars, including Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India on Sunday, May 22 announced the India squads for the upcoming 5-match T20I series against South Africa at home and the one-off 5th Test against England in July. As expected, the big names, including captain Rohit Sharma, former skipper Virat Kohli, and pacers Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami were rested from the white-ball commitments against the visiting Proteas side next month.
Captain Rohit Sharma, who was part of the T20I series and the Test series against Sri Lanka, had a tough campaign with Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League (IPL 2022). While plenty of experts, including former head coach, were calling for rest for Virat Kohli, who had a poor run in the season, the selectors have given Rohit a much-needed rest ahead of a major tour to England.
Rohit finished his IPL 2022 season without a fifty for the first time in his IPL career, scoring 268 runs in 14 matches. The Mumbai Indians finished with the wooden spoon for the first time as well.
It's no surprise that Virat Kohli has been given a break. The former captain was struggling for runs and only showed signs of a return to form in their final league game against Gujarat Titans last week. Kohli himself hinted that he was open to the idea of taking a break after having had a topsy-turvy run in international cricket over the last 6-8 months.
Shastri had said Kohli was mentally fried and it's high time that star batter takes a break to rejuvenate and reset.
"It's not a lot of people who mentioned it. There is one person precisely who has mentioned it which is Ravi bhai and that's because he has seen from close quarters over the last six-seven years the reality of the situation that I have been in," Kohli told Star Sports last week.
"The amount of cricket that I have played and the ups and downs and the toll that it takes on you to play three formats of the game plus the IPL for 10-11 years non-stop with the seven years of captaincy in between," he said.
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