'Gavaskar, Sachin, Dhoni... no one was spared': Shastri to Kohli, Rohit critics

India begin their road to next year's 50-over World Cup with a three-match ODI series against Bangladesh starting Sunday. The series will mark the return of the likes of Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul and Virat Kohli since India's exit from the T20 World Cup last month. The Men In Blue may have missed another opportunity to end their ICC title drought, but with another World Cup year approaching, it's time to hit the reset button. With Rohit and Kohli likely to be done playing T20Is, the two biggest superstars of Indian cricket stare at their final shot at becoming World Cup winners.

But for that that, runs need to flow from both their bats. Kohli has been able to successfully banish the poor form that haunted him in the first half by scoring plenty of runs in the Asia Cup and the World Cup, emerging as the leading run-scorer in both tournaments. But while his form has been a huge sigh of relief for Team India, fans are fretting over Rohit's. The India captain has been struggling of late, with his last fifty coming back in June against England. The ODIs are statistically Rohit and Kohli's favourite formats and the two may fancy their chances of playing themselves in and get big runs.

Plenty has been spoken about Rohit and Kohli's form and how it will stay extremely crucial if India are to win World Cups. But then again, every now and then, critics are ready to draw out the swords at even the slightest of opportunities. Former India coach Ravi Shastri, who has seen the best of both Kohli and Rohit from close quarters, has jumped in to defend the two premier India batters, saying loss of form is something no batter has been able to escape and that when the Indian cricketers play the amount of cricket they do, it is bound to happen.

"It has happened to everybody. When need be, it happened with even Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, Tendulkar, Dhoni... no one was spared. Everyone has their time because the expectations are so high. And it's a very sentimental lot. We Indians... we expect a lot, we want consistency at the same time. But we should also think that they are all human beings. You can't expect them to be on the road and performing all the time. Sometimes it happens, you will get ebbs and flows in form. It's only natural," Shastri told veteran sports journalist Vimal Kumar during an interview on his YouTube channel.

The pair of Rohit and Kohli are 86 runs away from completing 5000 runs in ODIs while batting in partnerships, a feat that looks likely to be achieved during the forthcoming three one-dayers. Kohli, with 7324 runs is 39 away from becoming the outright third-highest run scorer for India in ODIs away from home, overtaking his coach Rahul Dravid's tally of 7362 runs in the process; Kohli has a batting average of 80.8 in the format in Bangladesh, his highest in any single nation.

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