Favoritism at its peak: Virat Kohli's Selection blunders

North Sound, Antigua: Team India start their Test Championship in the Caribbean Island's but Virat Kohli's team selection has been awful. Cricketing Greats lashes out Virat Kohli on dropping Rohit Sharma and Ravichandran Ashwin from 1st Test against West Indies.

After Rohit Sharma's recent form and a spectacular World cup he was included in the Test squad, while every Cricket fan hoped he would atlast be given a longer run in Test Cricket.

The total opposite happened, Rohit Sharma was dropped from the 1st Test even after India played six batsman.

Many greats of the game was in favor of playing Rohit Sharma, Twitterati also saw Virat Kohli being lashing out at Kohli for the decision.

Also read: Virat Kohli breaching ICC Code of Conduct

Surprising fact is, Kohli has different parameters of selection for some players and different for others. Quite clearly its always been seen as favoritism by Kohli when it comes to selection of KL Rahul, Hardik Pandya, Yuzvendra Chahal despite poor performances. Captain-Coach has always been unfair to Rohit Sharma considering the fact that since 2013 Rohit Sharma has never played 3 consecutive Test matches. While other players despite their poor performances get tours after tours.

Here's a look at Rohit Sharma's numbers in last 20 test innings:

Rohit Sharma's Last 20 Test Innings:1,0,9,41,35,68*,2,82,51*,102*,65,50*,11,10,10,47,37,1,63*,5

Matches:10 ,Total: 713 runs ,50's: 6 ,100's:1

Recent World Cup form: 647 runs 5 hundreds 1 fifty

Still doesn't find a place in Test 11?#asksportstak @BCCI @ICC @virendersehwag

— Wickets11 (@Wickets111) August 23, 2019

Here's a look at KL Rahul's numbers in last 20 test innings:

KL Rahul's last 20 test innings: 54,4,13,8,10,23,36,19,0,37,149,0,4,33*,2,44,2,0,9,44
Matches:10 ,Total: 491 runs ,50's:1 ,100's:1

On the basis of this he is still in the team?
Clear favoritism by Captain to keep his favorite player in the team.@vikrantgupta73 @BCCI

— Wickets11 (@Wickets111) August 23, 2019

Here's a look at Ajinkya Rahane's numbers in last 20 test innings:

Ajinkya Rahane's last 20 test innings:
10,15,2,18,13,81,29,11,51,0,37,41,80,13,70,51,30,34,1,18

Total: 605runs 50's:5 100's:0

Are his numbers better than Rohit Sharma's? Clearly not but he still finds a place in XI.
Favoritism at its best by Kohli.@BCCI @vikrantgupta73

— Wickets11 (@Wickets111) August 24, 2019

If Ajinkya Rahane's numbers are impressive and he can find a place in the team after these performances why not Rohit Sharma? 

Clearly Rohit Sharma has not performed too bad to be kept out of the team. Probably Virat Kohli to accommodate his Favorite players saw Rohit Sharma never get an extended run in Test Cricket. 

Its pretty Unfair for Rohit Sharma to be quite honest.

Former Indian Captain Sourav Ganguly wanted Rohit Sharma to open the innings in test matches and thought its time for him to open in test and settle the opening slot.

Former Indian Legend,Little Master Sunil Gavsakar was shocked not to see Rohit in Playing XI, According to him, Rohit should've been given an extended run in Tests. He also slammed Kohli-Shastri of being unfair with selection. Virender Sehwag was also stunned after the decision of dropping Rohit Sharma from the 1st Test. If you select big players like Rohit for a tour, you are selecting him to play not to sit on the sidelines.

Even Shoaib Akhtar wanted Rohit to be in the playing 11 "I know Rohit has been given chances to play in the Test format earlier and he has not been able to grab on to the opportunity. But I believe he should be included in the team. He is a big match-winner, and not including him will be wrong. He is in good form and he should be given a chance right away," the 44-year-old expressed.

"When you have selected him in the squad, leaving him out of the playing XI should not be an option. I believe he will showcase his talent in the longest format of the game, he will become a great player in the Test format as well," Akhtar added.