India’s in-form vice-captain Virat Kohli was on Monday rested from the upcoming T20 series against Sri lanka as selectors included all-rounder Pawan Negi in the 15-member squad for the three-match rubber, beginning February 9. Kohli was in supreme form in the just-concluded T20 series in Australia, where he scored 199 runs at an average of 199 with three half-centuries.
The world number one in ICC T20 rankings, Kohli has played 10 one-dayers and five T20s apart from four Test matches from the month of October to end of January.
The swashbuckling right-hander’s break seems to have been timed to keep him fresh for the World T20 coming up next month in India.
Taking his place in the side for the short series is Negi, a rookie all-rounder Negi, who has played under Mahendra Singh Dhoni
For the Chennai Super Kings in IPl. His reasonably successful performances in the Mushtaq Ali and Deodhar Trophy events has earned him a spot as a cover for Ravindra Jadeja.
Manish Pandey has also been rewarded for his match-winning century in the Sydney ODI against Australia and has found a place in the squad announced by BCCI Secretary Anurag Thakur in a press release.
The selection panel chose to drop Rishi Dhawan, Gurkeerat Mann and Umesh Yadav from the squad. All three had struggled during the tour of Australia, failing to produce any Notableperformance.
Making a comeback was paceman Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who had missed the T20 series after injuring himself during the ODIs. The series will begin in Pune (February 9) followed By matches in Ranchi (February 12) and Visakhapatnam (February 14).
‘aggressiveness runs in family’
Sydney: Flamboyant Indian batsman Virat Kohli has finally let out the source of his much-talked-about aggressive streak, saying that a part of it, is inherited from his family while the rest can be blamed on the tough system he fought through to break into the international scene.
“I think it has got to do with the family, my father was a leo, he could fight. He always believed in himself. I think it comes a bit from the family plus growing up in the Delhi system,” Kohli told Australian all-rounder Glenn Maxwell in a video blog for Cricket Australia.
“It wasn’t easy, you always had to fight to go up the system and that makes you mentally tough. You stop worrying about things around you and focus on what you want,” he added.
Kohli, who was the star of the recent limited-overs series against Australia — winning the Player of the series award in the T20s, said he always dreamt of being a premium wicket for bowlers.
“When I came to the international level, I wanted to be the player which the opposition wanted out. I never wanted to be just another player in the XI.
I always wanted to be somebody who the opposition wanted to get out first,” he said.
Kohli also spoke about how Sachin Tendulkar Helped him become a better cricketer. “I started playing cricket because of him and I was inspired to do the things that he did playing for the country,” the 27-year-old said.
“He really helped me with little things that I could improve on in my game. If he saw something he would come up to me himself and tell me, which is quite rare. You don’t have people of his stature come up and talk to youngsters like that,” he added.
Kohli also felt the IPl has brought international rivals closer.
“If I didn’t know (Mitchell Starc) Starcy I would have never known what a sweet guy he is,” Kohli said of his Royal Challengers Bangalore teammate.
“He’s a wonderful human being. You form perceptions without knowing people and I think the IPl lets you lift those boundaries and actually be friends with people who you play against,” he added.