4 Indian players who should have been rested for ODIs vs West Indies

Virat Kohli

India in 2013 has played 28 ODIs, 5 Tests (about to play the 6th) and one T20 international, and Virat has played in every single one of them. Just 25 years old, so people may wonder whether he should be rested. But he is India’s most precious batsman across all three formats.

He did get a break before the Australian series as his IPL franchise RCB had not qualified for the Champions League. But still you would not have wanted to take any chances with so many important tours coming up. When it comes to getting some rest, it’s now or never as the Indian players are about to play continuously for the next 6 months starting from the South African tour and culminating with the IPL.

Virat has played every single game for India in 2013.

Ajinkya Rahane would have been the ideal replacement. He played the final ODI against Zimbabwe and scored 50. And he was very impressive in the recently concluded CLT20. This should have been enough to merit a place at least in the squad as a reserve batsman. But surprisingly, the selectors have not picked a specialist reserve batsman in the 15 member squad with Rayudu being the reserve keeper/batsman.