Shastri wants Rohit and Kohli to return to domestic cricket to rediscover form

“I think fitness is very important,” Shastri told the ICC Review. “That’s more important than anything else. There’s no substitute for experience. But for me, current form and fitness are very important as well. So the next six months, I know there’s a lot of one-day cricket, but when there’s an experienced player playing, just seeing the way he’s batting, you get a fair idea if we can jump on to that Test cricket bandwagon straightaway.

“So, I’ll be watching very closely all the one-day games that are played, the Champions Trophy that is played, a little bit of the IPL as well. And if possible, if there’s a gap for them, I think they should go back and play some domestic cricket and see how it is, because when you play Test cricket for that length of time, it’s important to play domestic cricket.”

Shastri’s suggestion may seem logical on the face of it, but the packed cricket calendar leaves both players with a very slim window to play any first-class cricket. The white-ball leg of India’s domestic season runs until the third week of January before the focus shifts to the back end of the Ranji Trophy. But with Kohli and Rohit likely to be part of India’s home ODIs against England in the run-up to the Champions Trophy, they will potentially have just one Ranji game to feature in, beginning on January 23.

The other option, albeit unrealistic, is for them to try and feature in the county championships in the early part of the English summer. However, this seems nigh impossible given both players are massive draws for their respective IPL franchises. In Kohli’s case, he is also in the running to once again captain Royal Challengers Bengaluru, a job he gave up in 2020.

Ponting: ‘Kohli still has the skill, needs time away’

“The way he is getting out, you can see he doesn’t want to be playing at those balls,” Ponting said. “He’s trying not to do it, but there’s some mental block that’s making him feel for that one outside the off stump. And remember, it’s been going on for a while now. He had a mental break, didn’t he, maybe 12 months ago, 18 months ago where he stepped away for a while and then came back and re-found the love for the game again.

“So right now, it just seems like that real love of the game for him is not there because he’s making it too hard to enjoy. So if he wants to continue playing Test cricket, he might just need to have a little spell for a while, find the love for the game again, but there’s no doubt that the skill and the talent is still there. But sometimes you just need to get away, lock up your kit bag for a little while, spend some time with the family, and think about how hard the game can be.”

Shashank Kishore is a senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo