Allegations of BCCI unfairly favoring Kohli and Rohit, damaging Indian cricket: 'Due to their high status...'

Following the disappointing performance of India captain Rohit Sharma and former skipper Virat Kohli in the opening Test against Bangladesh in Chennai last week, questions have been raised regarding the alleged preferential treatment given to the two players by the BCCI and the Ajit Agarkar-led selection committee. Critics argue that this preferential treatment has not only harmed Indian cricket but has also affected the players themselves.

Unlike the rest of the Indian players picked for the Bangladesh Test series, Rohit and Kohli, along with Jasprit Bumrah were not picked for the Duleep Trophy tournament, which served as a preparatory event for the players. However, while Bumrah, who was rested since the T20 World Cup win in June, returned with an impressive figure, which included a 4 for 50 in the opening innings at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Kohli and Rohit struggled to score runs in both innings.

Rohit scored just 11 runs in the match, while Kohli, who last featured in a Test match in the first week of January this year, and last played a home game in the format in February last year against Australia, amassed 21 runs.

Despite their poor returns in the Chennai Test, India won the match by 280 runs following a record all-round brilliance from Ravichandran Ashwin and centuries from Shubman Gill and Rishabh Pant. But former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar, in conversation with ESPNcricinfo, reckoned that things would have been different for Kohli and Rohit had they participated in the Duleep Trophy.

Although he believes that the two experienced players will bounce back to form in the second Test against Bangladesh in Kanpur later this week, he warned the selectors against not giving “special treatment” to “certain players” owing to their “status” as it could “hurt Indian cricket and the player themselves.”

He said: “I'm not worried, but I'm sure somebody made a note of the fact that they would have been better off had they played some red-ball cricket. There was the option of picking them in the Duleep Trophy. So one has to be careful about treating certain players differently and do what's best for Indian cricket and for the player. Virat and Rohit not playing (Duleep Trophy) was not good for Indian cricket, nor was it good for the two players. Had they played the Duleep Trophy and had some time in the red-ball cricket, things would have been different. But they have the class and experience to make a comeback later in the series, and I don't see them, for that reason, not being in form. But something that one must make a quiet note of, and that has been a problem with Indian cricket for a long time now, is that certain players get picked out for special treatment because of their status, which eventually hurts that player more than anyone else.”

In 2024, where Kohli has batted four times, he has managed just 81 runs, which saw his career average drop to an eight-year low of 48.74. Furthermore, at home, the 35-year-old has scored only 401 runs across seven Tests since the start of 2022, which includes a solitary hundred, en route to knock of 186 against Australia last year. In Asia, he has managed just 654 runs in the 23 innings he played since 2021, laced with just one hundred and two fifties, at an average of only 29.72.