By Karan Agrawal 
India’s former head coach Ravi Shastri has backed the idea of senior Indian players Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma playing domestic cricket to regain their form. In the words of Ravi Shastri, “If there’s a gap for them, I think they should go back and play some domestic cricket and see how it is. Because when you play Test match cricket for that length of time, it’s important to play domestic cricket for two reasons: You’re abreast with the current generation (and) you can contribute to that younger generation with your experience,” Shastri told ICC Review.
The Reason
One of the main reasons for Shastri to advocate the need for senior players to play domestic cricket is to improve their game against spinners which has degraded in the last few years. According to Shastri “And more importantly, you get to play spin more than you will ever play. So if you see India as recorded, India on turning tracks is not the greatest. If you have quality spinners in the opposition, they can trouble you. And they have troubled India,” he added.
The Decision
The former Indian all-rounder feels that Virat and Rohit might have been lucky to play the recently concluded Test series against Australia given how badly the two were exposed in challenging conditions in the home series against New Zealand.
In the words of Ravi Shastri “They might have been lucky to get over a couple of series, but you saw how New Zealand exposed them before coming to Australia. So I would leave it on that,” Shastri said. “And plus, it’s the hunger and desire. When you’re in your 30s, one is 36, the other is 38. They would know how hungry they are,” he added.
The Transition
Following a below-average tour of Australia there have been talks of how long will Virat and Rohit play. Reacting to it Shastri said that Virat has another 3-4 years of cricket left in him and remains an important member of a team that is going through a transition. “So I think the contributing factor to this team is transition and the youngsters coming through the ranks. If you look at Jaiswal, he’s 23. You look at Shubham Gill is 22, 23 [25 years]. Nitish Reddy is 21,” said Shastri.
“There are a lot of players. Rishabh Pant, he is still very young. He is 25 or 26. [27 years]. So there are a lot of guys there who can benefit from the experience of a player of Virat Kohli’s caliber,” he added.