“Who will say to him that we won’t give you rest?” – Reetinder Sodhi on Rohit Sharma's absence from NZ tour

Former India player Reetinder Singh Sodhi has blasted Indian captain Rohit Sharma for resting himself for the upcoming white ball series against New Zealand. Sodhi is not amused with the idea of giving rest to senior players in almost every alternate limited-overs series, which has become a new norm in Indian cricket.

The former player said that no individual should be bigger than the game, be it Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli or even head coach Rahul Dravid. Sodhi reckons rest should only be allowed if there're a genuine reason behind it.

Speaking to India News, Sodhi said:

“Rohit says that he wants to take rest. Who will say to him that we won’t give you rest? I have never read such statements in the newspaper.”

He added:

“We have to be now very blatant about things. No individual is bigger than cricket. Keep cricket ahead of anyone like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma or Rahul Dravid. If you are asking for rest, it has to have substance. You have niggle or play so much cricket, score a lot. After T20 World Cup, rest is unexpected. Somebody has to come out and say, ‘No, you won’t get rest.’”

For those not in the know, seven Indian players have been rested or dropped after the T20 World Cup. They are Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Mohammed Shami and Dinesh Karthik.

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“Decide whether you want to keep Rohit Sharma till 2023 ODI World Cup” – Saba Karim

Former India selector Saba Karim thinks the selectors should declare whether they want to keep Rohit Sharma as captain only till the 2023 World Cup or beyond. He feels Hardik Pandya should take on the baton in white ball cricket after the 2023 ODI World Cup, especially in T20I cricket.

Speaking on the same show as Sodhi, Karim said:

“You have to think about the future. Decide whether you want to keep Rohit Sharma until the 2023 ODI World Cup and then make Hardik Pandya our T20 captain. So, you can change and give the white ball captaincy to Hardik Pandya. You have to think like this for the future.”

The Hardik Pandya-led team will play their opener in Wellington on Friday (November 18). The action will then shift to Mount Maunganui (November 20) and Napier (November 22) for the last two T20Is.

India’s squad for New Zealand T20Is: Hardik Pandya (C), Shubman Gill, Ishan Kishan, Deepak Hooda, Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (VC and WK), Sanju Samson (WK), Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Harshal Patel, Mohd. Siraj, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umran Malik

Meanwhile, Shikhar Dhawan-led ODI side will look to avenge India’s 3-0 whitewash (2019-20) in their last series in New Zealand.