File photo of Rohit Sharma (L) and Virat Kohli© AFP
Former India great Harbhajan Singh believes that Virat Kohli with his supreme fitness can easily survive the rigours of international cricket for another five years while Test and ODI captain Rohit Sharma will last at least another couple of years. “Rohit can easily play for two more years. You never know with Virat Kohli’s fitness, you can see him competing for five years. He is probably the fittest guy in the team,” Harbhajan told PTI Videos in an exclusive interview. “You ask any 19-year-old competing with Virat (on fitness). Virat will beat him. He is that fit. I believe Virat and Rohit have a lot of cricket left in them and it is entirely up to them. If they are fit enough, they are performing and the team is winning, they should continue to play. As simple as that,” the man with 700 plus international wickets said.
Harbhajan believes that Test cricket is one format where you need both of them.
“Red ball cricket, you really need these two guys to play a little bit more than what people are asking. You need experience in all formats whether its limited overs cricket and Test cricket. You need experienced cricketers to nurture the talent that is coming up.
“Selectors need to see, that if someone is not performing well, they should be dropped. Whether they are senior player or juniors. But as long as everyone is fit, they should be able to get selected in the team.” He further said: “And if they are not contributing in any manner, whether its fitness or number of runs, then the time has come. They should be making way for the youngsters.
“At the end of the day, it’s an individual decision and selectors are there to watch these steps as to who are capable to perform at what age. Obviously, they are considering all those factors before picking them.” Harbhajan does believe that youngsters have way more hunger than senior players as they are yet to establish themselves.
“I always believe that youngsters have much more hunger than the seniors. If you play for 15 years your hunger a little bit comes down. Great to see Riyan Parag getting the opportunities and the way Yashasvi Jaiswal is coming up and Shubman Gill is playing.” Harbhajan played down India’s 0-2 loss to Sri Lanka in the ODIs.
“It was one of those things. Sometimes you win it, sometimes you lose it. It’s sports after all. All teams go through these periods. You play well but you still don’t win. I will give credit to Sri Lanka. They played well. They played better than India.”
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