India are all set to host Sri Lanka for series across all formats and the skipper Virat Kohli addressed the media ahead of the first Test to be played at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata from November 16. The right-hander talked in detail about the importance of taking rest from the game from time to time.
Hardik Pandya was recently given a break from the Test series against Sri Lanka as he had been consistently taking the field for so long. This has been a topic of debate ever since and Virat Kohli defended his break stating that the body takes time to recover after doing the hard yards on the ground.
“Look, this is one thing which people don’t explain properly. There are a lot of talks from the outside in terms of workload whether the player should be rested or not. For example, all cricketers play 40 international games in a year. Three guys who should get rest, their workload should be managed. 11 players play the game and not everyone would have batted for 45 overs in an ODI or not everyone would have bowled 30 overs in a Test match. But, the guys who are doing that regularly are the ones who need to be assessed because the body takes so much time to recover and needs rest as well,” he said.
“People only look into this like everyone has played 40 games. They don’t look at the time spent at the crease, the numbers of runs ran, the number of overs bowled by the bowlers, what were the conditions, what were the temperatures like, whether the body is recovered or not. I don’t think people look into that analysis. From the outside, it looks like why are few players not rested? Everyone played the same number of games. But, not everyone has the same kind of workload in every game,” he added.
Need to assess players who play all 3 formats
Team India has been fielding completely different units for different formats of the game and there is a pool of around 25 players that are consistent in the circuit. Kohli stressed upon the point that the players who play all three formats need to be assessed every now and then.
“Now that we have such a strong core of 20-25 players, you don’t want important players to break down at crucial times and that is where you need to maintain the balance especially with the guys who play all the three formats. It is almost impossible to maintain the same intensity and the level of performance like what you do in the earlier phase of the season. I think those details are very important when you are managing one’s workload,” the Delhi-lad mentioned.
Talking about his own break from the game, the 29-year-old said that he would also require rest at the certain point of time when the body demands and that he is not a robot who could play day in and day out.
“Definitely, I do need a rest. Why don’t I need a rest? When I think of the time that my body should be rested, I will ask for it. I am not a robot. You can slice my skin and check. I bleed,” he concluded.
