'When Will Youngsters Get Opportunity?': Rohit Sharma on Why Senior Players Weren't Considered for Virat Kohli's Replacement

With Virat Kohli withdrawing days before the series opening Test between India and England in Hyderabad, the team management was left with a challenging task to find an apt replacement considering the hole left by the batting superstar’s absence.

Kohli, for personal reasons, will miss the first two Tests of the five-match series against England.

With the amount of experience that Kohli has, turning to someone like Cheteshwar Pujara or Ajinkya Rahane  – both currently not part of the Test setup – would have been a prudent step considering the challenge England could present.

However, as per various media reports, India may not consider either Pujara or Rahane and instead give chance to a younger player with Rajar Patidar emerging as the top candidate.

On the match eve, India captain Rohit Sharma said recalling a senior player, without taking any name, could have been an option but this also presents an opportunity to give a younger player a go.

“Yeah, I mean, look, you could have thought that [going back to a senior player] we did actually think about it, but all these younger players, when are they going to get their opportunity? That’s something that we thought as well,” Rohit said on Wednesday.

“Leaving out an experienced player or not considering them is very hard because of the amount of runs they’ve scored, the kind of experience they’ve had, the amount of games that they have won. For us, it’s very hard to ignore all of that, but you sometimes got to bring certain players into your setup as well, and you got to give them your favorable conditions,” he added.

Rohit said the fact that they avoid exposing an inexperienced player to foreign conditions makes all the more important to use the chance at hand and give them a a taste of what it takes to play red-ball cricket at international level.

“You don’t want to expose them or bring them on foreign tours where they’ve not played before. So I think that’s the thought behind all of that. It’s important that we try and get some of these youngsters in whenever there is an opportunity,” he said.