According to Harbhajan Singh, a former great of India, Virat Kohli’s excellent fitness will allow him play cricket at the international level for another five years. He also feels that Rohit Sharma who captains India’s team in both test and ODI formats can continue playing for at least two more seasons.
“Rohit can easily have another two years. I mean you never know with Virat Kohli’s fitness, look at him competing for five years more. Probably the fittest guy in the team,” reported Harbhajan to PTI Videos in an exclusive interview.
“Ask any 19 year old to compete with Virat (on fitness). He’ll beat them all. That fit. And I think there is still a lot of cricket left in both Rohit and Virat. It is totally up to them. If they are fit, performing and the team is winning then why not keep playing? As simple as that,” said the man having over 700 wickets in his career.
Harbhajan believes both, Virat and Rohit are important players when it comes to Test cricket.
“In red ball cricket these two guys need to give little bit more than what people are asking of them. You need experience in every format whether it is limited overs cricket or test matches . You need experienced cricketers around so that they can nurture the talent coming through.
”Selectors should be able to see that if someone is not performing well they have been dropped out whether they are seniors or juniors but as long as everyone else is fit they should be able to get selected into the team.”
Further he said: “And if they’re not contributing anything like fitness or numbers of runs then time has come for them go away now from there itself. They should make way for new emerging kids.
“At end of day it’s always individual decision also selectors watch those steps who capable doing what age wise and all. Obviously, they are considering all those factors before picking them.”
According to Harbhajan younger players have more desire as compared to the older ones because they want to confirm their worth and place in the team.
“I always believe that youngsters have much more hunger than the seniors. You play 15 years then your hunger little bit comes down Great to see Riyan Parag getting the opportunities and the way Yashasvi Jaiswal is coming up and Shubman Gill is playing.”
Harbhajan played down India’s recent 0-2 defeat in ODI series against Sri Lanka.
“It was one of those things. Sometimes you win it, sometimes you lose it. It’s sports after all. All teams go through these periods. You play well but you still don’t win. I will give credit to Sri Lanka. They played well. They played better than India”.
