Former India captain Virat Kohli has been struggling with the bat lately and has not managed to add a decent number of runs in his account. He has not scored a century in the last three years and is going through a rough phase in his career.
In the second T20I against England, he came into playing XI in the place of Deepak Hooda but got dismissed by scoring just one run.
After he was rested for the West Indies ODI series that will be led by Shikhar Dhawan, speculations on whether he has been dropped from the team have also risen.
Recently, former India captain Kapil Dev gave his take on Kohli's inclusion in playing XI.
"Now the situation is such that you might be forced to bench Kohli from T20 playing eleven. If world No. 2 bowler Ashwin can be dropped from the Test side then (once upon a time) world No. 1 batter can also be dropped," said the legendary cricketer.
"Play in-form players when you have loads of options," said Kapil. "You can't just go by reputation but you have to look for the current form. You can be an established player but that doesn't mean that you will be given chances even if you fail five games in a row," he concluded.
However, Kohli's childhood coach Rajkumar Sharma disagreed with Kapil Dev.
"I do not support the statements made by Kapil Dev on Virat Kohli. Nothing big happened with Virat that such kind of statement has been issued. Why is there so much hurry with Virat, he has done so well for the country. Making 70 international centuries is not a small thing. I do not think the board will make a decision to have him sit on the bench," Rajkumar said to ANI.
