Dilip Vengsarkar backs Virat Kohli's decision to skip Afghanistan Test

Ahead of India’s arduous upcoming tour of England, former India selector Dilip Vengsarkar commented that the scheduling of the Test match against Afghanistan was wrong. Speaking at length about this, the former India batsman went ahead and stated that the BCCI should have focused a lot more on the upcoming England tour as opposed to a Test match against Afghanistan.

“To be honest with you, I feel that the Afghanistan Test is wrongly scheduled because they (the BCCI) should’ve concentrated more on the England tour. (I know that) The Indian A team is going (to England). Of course, there is an FTP, there is a Test programme, and you’ve to adhere to it. But then, this is a Test match. You can’t take it lightly. This is Afghanistan’s first match, and they must be very keen to establish themselves at the international level,” Vengsarkar said here on Friday.

‘Good decision to play overseas’

While Vengsarkar lamented the match against the Afghans, he also lauded the decisions made by Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara to play county cricket ahead of the tour. He also noted that Kohli had a rather bad outing on the previous tour.

“It’s a good decision. He will get time to acclimatise to the conditions. The last tour wasn’t very good for him. So it (the county stint) is very critical for him. So he’s very keen to there early, which is a good thing,” said the 62-year-old. “I think he’s the best batsman in the world at the moment. In the last four years, he’s established himself as a No 1 batsman in the world. So we expect a lot of things from, him. Of course, England your will be ‘the tour’ for him. I’m sure he’ll do well,” he said.

However, while the 62-year old lauded Kohli, he also added that Cheteshwar Pujara’s return to play the match in Bangalore was the wrong decision.

“If I was a selector, I would’ve asked (Cheteshwar) Pujara also to stay back and play county cricket because these are the guys who’re going to play in England. Playing in India against Afghanistan, for the time, makes no sense. Pujara’s coming back from England to play Afghanistan defies logic to me, because he was playing in county cricket, where, at the moment, he isn’t very consistent. So, he would’ve got more chances to play in England, scored runs and got into the groove,” remarked Vengsarkar.

‘We have got fast bowlers now’

All in all, Vengsarkar sounded confident of India’s chances this time around, given the fact that they now have the pace bowlers who can indeed get the job done.

“I expect a lot from the Indian team on the tour of England… simply because we’ve got fast bowlers now, and a lot of options in fast bowlers, which wasn’t the case before. It’s a good thing for Indian cricket. We have a balanced team. Since our pacers are very good at the international level, we should be able to win,” he said.

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