What was expected did not happen in the Chennai Test, rather what was feared happened. Two days of this Test match being played between India and Bangladesh have been completed and as per expectations, Team India is still leading in this match. Victory also seems certain but here we are talking about a different expectation. Expectation - big innings from Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli but within two days, the two biggest batsmen of Team India failed miserably. Rohit and Virat got out cheaply in both the innings. The failure of both the giants raises a question - if they had spent only 4 days on the field before the start of the series, would the situation have been different today?

Before the start of this series, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma stayed away from the cricket field for a whole month. They returned to Test cricket after staying out for even longer. The last time both of them played any kind of cricket was in the first 10 days of August but that too was ODI cricket. Before that, both were busy in the T20 World Cup and IPL. Rohit had played red ball cricket before this in the Test series against England between January and March. That is, 6 months ago. On the other hand, Virat returned to this format in the first week of January after playing a Test match for just 2 days in South Africa.

If 4 days were given for Duleep Trophy…

In such a situation, it is natural to raise the question that shouldn't both of them have played some kind of competitive cricket before this series? Did Virat and Rohit make a mistake by relying only on a 5-day training camp? Shouldn't both of them have played the 4-day match before this series, in which BCCI had ordered all other cricketers to participate? Here we are talking about the Duleep Trophy, in the first round of which the board had ordered players like Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Kuldeep Yadav, KL Rahul, Mohammad Siraj to play and they also played the first match.

BCCI secretary Jay Shah had then said that both the players have been exempted from participating in it because no risk can be taken with them. If Virat and Rohit had played the Duleep Trophy match for 4 days, then perhaps they would have had a chance to gain rhythm. They would have also got real match practice in front of the red ball. On the contrary, both the batsmen directly entered the Test and looked 'out of touch'.

… then you don’t have to be so embarrassed

Rohit, who batted brilliantly in the swinging conditions of England, lost his wicket to the fast bowlers in Chennai within 3-4 overs. The Indian captain did not look comfortable at all in both the innings and was troubled by the Bangladeshi pacers. What can one say about Virat Kohli. The decade-old disease of playing the ball outside the off-stump against fast bowlers is still continuing, which has become almost incurable in the last 4 years. He got out like this in the first innings.

In the second innings, he got out LBW on the ball of off-spinner Mehdi Hasan Miraz. Virat's troubles against off-spinners are not going away either. Although in the second innings, Kohli was batting very composedly and did not look troubled even once, but once again, in the absence of shots like sweep, he relied only on strokes like flick or punch. This is the reason why he got out while trying to flick a ball. However, his bat had touched the edge and he made the mistake of not taking DRS and walked away.

Difficulties will only increase with age

Although both are big and experienced batsmen and have been playing international cricket for the last one and a half decade. In such a situation, despite any kind of break, there is always an expectation of them getting back into rhythm immediately and till a few years ago, both of them used to do so without any problem. But now times are different. At the age at which both of them are, the situation will become difficult for them. Batting reflexes start weakening and it becomes easier to exploit their weaknesses. Something similar is happening with both of them, so now we can only hope that Rohit and Virat will recover from the failure of this test and make a comeback in the second test.