India vs West Indies: More 'rest' adds fuel to Virat Kohli debate

Virat Kohli has been rested for the entire white-ball tour of West Indies after he requested BCCI for a break. On July 7, TOI had exclusively reported that Kohli and Jasprit Bumrah were unlikely to play the five-match T20I series following the three-match ODI series in the Caribbean that starts on July 22. TOI has learnt Kohli has assured the board that he would be available for Asia Cup (late August) onwards. His struggles have put his place in the T20I playing XI under scrutiny with the T20 World Cup barely three months away. "The team management and selectors wanted to play a full-strength T20I team from the ongoing England tour. But Kohli insisted he wanted a break and didn't wish to travel to West Indies," a BCCI source told TOI on Thursday.

The resting of speedster Bumrah is understandable. It is workload management. Kohli's case is hard to understand since he has not been scoring runs. And the crucial question that every cricket fan is asking is: how does India's premium batter get back to form without playing cricket?

Kohli being rested for the white-ball tour of West Indies means he is realistically left with just the T20 Asia Cup in Sri Lanka in late August and the three T20Is against Australia after that to make a case for his worth in India's T20I side, if he's indeed in the selectors' plans in this format of the game. India are going to send a second-string white-ball team to Zimbabwe in August and Kohli is unlikely to be part of that team too. After Kohli failed in both the T20Is in England - being dismissed for scores of 1 & 11 - he has been at the centre of a raging debate over his place in India's T20I side for the World Cup in Australia later this year, considering his patchy form and