‘He has started struggling again’- Former India Cricketer on Virat Kohli’s bad performance in ODIs against Bangladesh

How much rest should players be allowed to take? This has been one of the biggest talking points in Indian cricket in recent times. The fans are furious with the fact that this issue of workload management comes into the picture only when the players are on national duty and not when they are playing for their respective Indian T20 League franchises.

India have lost two ODI series inside a month, that too before the 50-over World cup 2023. Now questions are being raised over the preparations for the next year’s world cup. India were defeated by Bangladesh by five runs in the second match of the three-match ODI series on Wednesday and the Bangla Tigers are now currently having an unassailable lead in the series of 2-0.

Several experiments with the team have spelt down for the Indian Cricket team before the upcoming 2023 World Cup. On the premise of choosing the best possible eleven, the team management has made a number of changes without providing newcomers enough time to settle into the international arena. Former Indian Cricketer Vivek Razdan talked about the same and said that the team should stop doing experiments in the playing XI.

‘There’s been too much of experimentation’- Vivek Razdan

“I would like to make just one suggestion. Stop experimenting," Razdan said while on-air during the 2nd ODI in Dhaka.“In the past few months, we have seen this happening. Time to halt this line of thinking. There’s been too much of experimentation. Still there’s a lot of time before the ODI World Cup." Razdan said while on-air during the 2nd ODI in Dhaka.

A direct impact of workload management has seen an in-form Virat Kohli struggling right after having struck a rich vein of form during the 20-20 World Cup earlier this year in Australia. Kohli, along with a host of senior players, was rested from the limited-overs tour of New Zealand that immediately followed the showpiece event and made his return in the ongoing tour of Bangladesh.

“Need to understand another thing. When a player is in form, don’t rest him. Let him play. Look at Virat Kohli - he was in good form at the T20 World Cup but then you rested him from the New Zealand tour. Now, he has started struggling again," Razdan pointed out.

He continued, “A player gets into form by playing (regularly). So please do not rest a player the moment he gets in form. World Cup is now a few months away. A team should have been finalized by now that would play your first match (of the tournament). You would want every player to get into form before that."