Virat Kohli will be fine if you guys can keep quiet: Rohit Sharma lashes out at media ahead of T20I series against WI

Team India skipper Rohit Sharma brushed aside concerns over Virat Kohli's form, saying the stylish batter is in "great mental space".

Rohit Sharma with Virat Kohli (Source: Twitter)

India white-ball skipper Rohit Sharma on Tuesday said that Virat Kohli knows how to handle pressure and everything will fall into place if media can stop scrutinizing the batting form of the former captain.

Notably, Kohli managed only 26 runs over three ODIs against the West Indies earlier this month.

When asked how the captain and head coach Rahul Dravid are going to deal with Kohli's inconsistent form, Rohit said, "I think it will start with you guys (media). If you guys can keep quiet for a while, then Virat Kohli will be fine and everything will be taken care of."

"He is in a great mental space, and he has been part of international cricket for more than a decade, when someone has spent such a long time in international cricket, they know to handle pressure situations. I think it all starts from you guys, if you can keep it quiet for a bit, everything will fall in place," said Rohit during a virtual press conference.

India and West Indies will lock horns in three T20Is beginning Wednesday and the focus will be on the brand of cricket India play, having witnessed disappointment in T20 World Cup 2021. The Men in Blue also need to develop a core nucleus that will play for them in the T20 World Cup 2022, Australia.

A sneak peek into #TeamIndia's fielding drill at the Eden Gardens. #INDvWI | @Paytm pic.twitter.com/wSFH4keVTx — BCCI (@BCCI) February 15, 2022

Replying to a query on whether the Men in Blue would look to give games to everyone in the squad, Rohit said: "Yeah, the idea is to identify the players who are going to play the World Cup, try and give them game time. There are a lot of players who are injured, come the World Cup, I do not know who is going to be fit, so we just have to get everyone ready for any situation."

"We have a very packed schedule and injuries are bound to happen, it is important that we give guys who are going to fill those roles, enough game time. It is important that we use this series and the next series that will follow after this, to our good potential and see whoever are likely to have, what they can offer us," he added.

Talking about Hardik Pandya who is not a part of the squad for the West Indies series, the white-ball skipper said: "Hardik Pandya is an important player, he brings three skills to the table. We have not had a discussion on whether he can play as pure batter or not. It is about everyone being available. Since the T20 World Cup, we have had injuries. The important thing is to get everyone available, once they are available, we will look at the second step."

"The door is open for everyone, we do not make decisions quickly, we want to go with the right combination because, in Australia, you will get different conditions. You will require different skillsets there, we want to prepare accordingly and we want to cover all the bases," he added.

Meanwhile, on Monday, the BCCI announced that Washington Sundar has been ruled out of the T20I series due to a left hamstring muscle strain. Kuldeep Yadav will replace him in the squad.

India squad: Rohit Sharma (captain), Ishan Kishan, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Surya Kumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Venkatesh Iyer, Deepak Chahar, Shardul Thakur, Ravi Bishnoi, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohd. Siraj, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Avesh Khan, Harshal Patel, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Deepak Hooda.