Virat Kohli’s fate hangs on Shubman Gill; India stars asked to submit medical if opting out of bilateral series: Report

Virat Kohli’s poor run with the bat in the past year was one of the talking points in the BCCI’s review meeting that took place in Mumbai on Saturday. The meeting was attended by India captain Rohit Sharma, head coach Gautam Gambhir, chief selector Ajit Agarkar and the BCCI top officials. Dubbed as the review meeting after India’s Border-Gavaskar Trophy debacle, what went wrong in Australia and how things can be improved were largely discussed. 

Kohli has been under severe criticism for his non performance in the series against New Zealand and Australia. Following his 93 runs in six innings against New Zealand at an average of 15.50, Kohli was expected to shut the critics in Australia, a country where has scored as many as seven Test hundreds.

However, baring a hundred in Perth in the first Test, Kohli has nothing but 90 runs to show in the entire series. To make matters worse, the former India captain fell trap to the deliveries outside off-stump eight times in his nine innings Down Under.    

According to a Hindustan Times report, Kohli’s form was largely discussed and his inclusion in the Test tour of England, purely depends on how Gill performs in the months before. India will begin their next World Test Championship cycle with the England tour in late June.  

“With the five-Test series against England still five months away, the selectors are likely to sit over the matter before forming an opinion. Shubman Gill hasn’t settled into the Kohli role as he was expected to; nowhere close to how ready Kohli was when Sachin Tendulkar hung up his boots. This is something that will be factored in by Agarkar’s selection committee,” the report said. 

Meanwhile, Shubman Gill stats aren’t worthy too in Australia. In five innings, Gill managed to score 93 runs at an average of 18.60 without a half-century. It is to be noted that since Gill’s Gabba show 2020/21, the right-hander’s performance with the bat outside Asia has been under scrutiny as he managed just 233 runs in 14 innings at 17.92.

BCCI’s strong stance going forward 

It was also discussed during the BCCI review meeting, it was decided that the players won’t be allowed to skip bilateral series according to their wishes. Recently, there were several instances where some of the senior players opted to sit out in some of the bilateral series. 

Based on a PTI report, such things won’t be entertained in the bolateral assignments going forward. The report stated that the players, wanting to opt out of any bilateral series need to provide proper medical reasons.