Rohit, Kohli and other national team players advised to play upcoming Ranji game

Resting majority of cricketers, BCCI urges players, including Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, to participate in Ranji Trophy.

 A majority of India’s men’s cricketers who returned from Australia earlier in the week after losing the Test series have been rested for the T20I series against England, starting January 22. However, the whole group, including the veteran duo of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, who are under fire, has been advised to participate in the Ranji Trophy round starting January 23 for their respective States.

Lack of First-Class game-time has been considered to be a major reason behind India’s downfall, first at home against New Zealand followed by the  Border-Gavaskar Trophy. As a result, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) hierarchy and the national selection panel has sent out feelers to all the cricketers to make the best effort to play in the remaining domestic First Class season. “It’s not been made mandatory but it has been communicated to all the cricketers, even the fringe players, to play Ranji Trophy. If they don’t, it will be up to the selectors to take suitable action,” a  BCCI insider revealed here on Sunday.

It will be interesting to see if Rohit, the Test and ODI captain, and former captain Kohli make a rare Ranji appearance. Both have struggled with the willow right through the season, thus making India’s batting line-up appear fragile. While Kohli last featured in a Ranji game for Delhi in 2012, Rohit’s last Ranji appearance was in November 2015. Mumbai will take on Jammu and Kashmir at home from Jan. 23 while Delhi will travel to  Rajkot to face Saurashtra. With the duo expected to join the ODI squad and as a result miss the last round of the Ranji Trophy league stage starting on Jan. 30, it will be the only opportunity for both the veterans to play a competitive red-ball match.

Last season, Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer were not considered for the central contracts for having ignored the BCCI diktat to play domestic cricket.

The last week has seen frantic action in the Indian cricket corridors following India’s inability to qualify for the World Test Championship final. A review meeting on Saturday night dissected the Australia tour and also discussed the way forward.

“We have the England series, following the Champions Trophy, so we have to think about one (assignment) at a time. We have had a lot of discussions during the last two days and we are trying to streamline our drawbacks and we have to overcome them,” said Devajit Saikia, the newly-elected BCCI secretary. “We are taking all the experts’ opinions also. We look forward to a very positive outcome of this discussion and exercise which we had over the last two days.