Former Indian captain Kapil Dev, in an interview with ABP News, said that Team India must prioritise playing in-form players over the ones with big reputations. Kapil Dev, who led the 1983 World Cup winning Indian team, said when ace off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin could be dropped from the Indian team, the same could be done with Virat Kohli.
"Play in-form players when you have loads of options. You cannot just go by reputation, but you have to look for the current form. You can be an established player but that does not mean that you will be given chances even if you fail five games in a row," Kapil Dev told ABP News.
Kapil Dev's remark comes at a time when questions have been raised on Kohli's place in the team amid the batsman's prolonged lean patch. Since November 2019, Virat Kohli hasn't scored a century in international cricket. The calls grew stronger following his poor performances in the T20s against England.
Players like Deepak Hooda have taken advantage of his absence in recent T20I games by playing an explosive brand of cricket. Hooda scored a quick-fire century against Ireland and an aggressive 33 in the first T20I against England.
Kapil Dev also said that if a bowler of Ashwin's calibre could be left out of the Test side, so could Virat Kohli. Ashwin did not feature in a single match in the five-match Test series against England.
"If world No. 2 Test bowler Ashwin can be dropped from Test side then your No. 1 batter can also be dropped," Kapil further said. The former skipper believes that such competition for places would turn out to be positive for the Indian team with the T20 World Cup in Australia just a few months away.
"If he is not performing, you cannot continue to keep these boys out. I hope there is a healthy fight for selection, the youngsters should look to outperform Kohli. But Kohli needs to think, 'Yes at one point I was a big player, but I need to play like that No. 1 player again'. That is a problem for the team, it is not a bad problem," Kapil Dev further said.