"Someone else has to make that decision" - Chappell on Rohit, Kohli's Test future

Former India coach Greg Chappell said almost every player wants to play as long as possible, but it’s the selectors' job to decide when to move away from a particular individual. The 76-year-old made these comments when asked about Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli’s future in red-ball cricket.

Two of the biggest superstars of Indian cricket, Rohit and Kohli have been in terrible form of late. The two senior batters are averaging close to 27 in Test cricket this year and have looked completely out of touch. Even in the second Test against Australia in Adelaide, which India lost by 10 wickets, Rohit and Kohli could only manage 27 runs between them in four innings.

“You know yourself whether you’re at your peak or not. But they love playing the game. They want to play it as long as they can, and they have every reason, every right to want to go as long as they can. That’s why you need good, robust selection policies and selection panels to make those tough decisions," said Chappell.

“It’s not up to the players necessarily to make those decisions. They might want to make that decision. But it’s a well-paid job. Who’s going to walk away from it? Someone else has to make that decision. That’s why you need robust selection panels and policies."

The former Australia batter, who amassed close to 10,000 runs across 87 Tests and 74 ODIs, admitted that it’s really tough for selectors to have such conversations with players like Rohit and Kohli, and that’s why you need the right men for that job.

“It’s very tough. You’ve got to pick the right people to be selectors, the ones that are prepared to have those tough conversations. Depends on the relationships between the various people in the room. But we all go through it, everyone that plays at that level. You’ll have your ups and downs as a player. With good players, you prefer to give them a game too many than a game too few. So, it’s always tough to get that balance right.”

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