Former India wicketkeeper-batter Parthiv Patel has offered direct advice to young talent Shubman Gill: don’t get bogged down trying to manage senior players like Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma during the upcoming ODI series against Australia. Patel believes there’s no need for Gill to expend energy on this, given the maturity of both cricket stalwarts.
In a recent interview, Patel elaborated, “I don’t think that it will be a problem because of the kind of characters Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma are. You look at Virat — he became captain when MS Dhoni was still playing. He knows the role a senior plays in grooming a new captain. The same thing happened when Rohit became captain. Yes, Virat was not his senior, but he was nevertheless a former skipper. Obviously, they have gone through that phase and understand the decisions, which are always about the betterment of Indian cricket. Both of them come across as mature.”
He continued, “I don’t think Shubman needs to put his energies into managing those senior players.”
Patel also stressed the importance of domestic tournaments for keeping top players like Kohli and Sharma match-fit, especially with fewer bilateral ODI games on the international calendar. He suggested that participating in competitions such as the Vijay Hazare Trophy would be beneficial. “Two years is a long time, especially when there aren’t too many ODI games. Earlier, when there used to be 20–25 games a year, you would get on a roll, and before you knew it, two years had passed. But it is a different challenge, and we are new to this kind of situation. The challenge is to keep themselves match-fit,” Parthiv stated.
He concluded by emphasizing that such participation isn’t about setting an example, but about genuine self-improvement. “I would definitely feel they should play the Vijay Hazare Trophy. It’s not about setting an example like, ‘We have made Kohli and Rohit play the Hazare Trophy.’ That is not how I would like to think. Playing the Hazare Trophy will help their own game, and in turn, that will help the Indian cricket team.”