Indian men’s cricket’s biggest names currently, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma have put behind their alleged differences.
A report in the Times of India states that, this was largely due to the time both have spent inside the bio-bubble during the India-England series and with a little nudge from the team management including coach Ravi Shastri.
“A great deal of personal bonding has happened in recent weeks and they’re more in sync now than ever with regards to their cricket, the team, their responsibilities, and the upcoming challenges,” says the report quoting top sources within the BCCI.
“All the chatter from the outside was causing too much bitterness and all the hearsay was making things worse. Like all professionals, Virat and Rohit too would have disagreements from time to time. But until recently, they never thought of sitting down and talking it out with the kind of clarity that is now visible”.
The report also added that there has been a conscious effort from the duo to spend a lot of time talking to each other in public and Kohli has involved Sharma constantly in his discussions during the games against England.
The report further said that the source reiterated that this is not a public-relations exercise they are indulging in to show everyone that things are fine even if they’re not.
“They have been appearing in photographs together a lot more than in the past. During the One-day series, Virat made it a point to keep his discussions on with Rohit constantly during the game. These things would happen earlier too, but this one time they’ve decided to make it more visible for outsiders to know that all this chatter now needs to stop.
Kohli opened with Rohit in the fifth T20I against England and the duo put on 94 in quick time, setting up the series win.
After the T20I series, Kohli said he wanted to open with Rohit going forward.
“I would definitely like to partner Rohit at the top. As I rightly said, if we have a partnership and we both are set, then you know that one of us is going to cause some serious damage. That's exactly what we want. And the other guys feel much more confident when one of us is still in and set, they know that they can play more freely. It augurs well for the team and I would like this to continue, and hopefully continue that form through to the World Cup."
Rohit however took a more pragmatic outlook on the change in batting order.
"It's still a long time for the World Cup. Early days to talk about what the batting line up will be looking like," Sharma said at the post-match press conference. "We'll just have to analyse and think about what suits the team most. Today was, I guess, a tactical move because we wanted an extra bowler to play. We wanted to leave one batsman out, and unfortunately, it was KL, which was very tough.
"KL, we know, he has been one of our key players in the limited-overs format, especially in this format. But looking at the current form, the team management decided to go with the best XI. Having said that, it doesn't send any signal that KL will not be considered or anything like that. This was just for one particular game.
"Things might change as and when we get closer to the World Cup. We do understand his ability, we do understand his contribution at the top, what he's done for us. So I'm not going to rule out anything and neither am I going to say that this is the preferred batting line-up for the World Cup, because it's still early days. We've got a good amount of time, there's the IPL in between and I'm hearing there will be a few T20s as well before the World Cup."
(With ToI inputs)
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