'Virat complaining now is definitely strange'- Diana Edulji on Kohli's complaint of Team India's busy schedule

The design of the Future Tour Program and the scheduling has been under scrutiny for some time now. The perfect case in point is Team India and the way in which their FTP has been designed. The Men in Blue have been constant cricket since August with the virtually little-to-no turn around between two series.

The Men in Blue completed their three-match ODI series against Australia on January 19th in Bengaluru, and within a space of four days, they were playing a T20I against New Zealand at Eden Park in Auckland. The 31-year-old Kohli had made a rather sarcastic comment when asked about the scheduling of the New Zealand series.

“It’s getting closer and closer to landing at the stadium straight (from the airport), Kohli had said in the press conference ahead of the start of the tour. “Hopefully, this will be taken into consideration in the future,” Kohli had said.

Kohli’s comments hadn’t gone down with a plethora of BCCI officials, including COA chief Amitabh Chowdhary, who slammed the Indian captain for criticizing the BCCI in front of the media.

Diana Edulji counters Virat Kohli’s claim

And, now Diana Eduji has expressed her surprise at Virat Kohli’s statement. Edulji has countered Virat’s claims as she said that MS Dhoni, Head Coach Ravi Shastri and Kohli himself had given their nod to the schedule back in 2017.

“Virat complaining now is definitely strange, I feel that he is playing so much of cricket that he forgot that he has given OK for such a schedule. We didn’t force this on the players. They knew that they would be landing in New Zealand three days before. It’s written in the minutes. Only after they (players) gave their consent was it approved,” Edulji was quoted as saying by The Indian Express.

“We had asked if the players wanted to change anything. We passed the FTP only after the players and the coach okayed it,” she added.

Meanwhile, the lack of time between the two series did not hamper Team India’s performance. Virat Kohli and Co. proceeded to register three wins on the trot, the last of which came via Super Over in Hamilton, to win their first-ever T20I series win in New Zealand.

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