I am not a robot you can slice my skin and check I bleed, says Virat Kohli

Virat Kohli said that he will ask for rest when he feels he wants it. (Source: PTI)

Virat Kohli said that he will ask for rest whenever he feels he needs it. The Indian captain was addressing a press conference in Kolkata’s Eden Gardens stadium ahead of the first Test against Sri Lanka. “Definitely I do need rest, why don’t I need rest? When I think of the time my body should be rested, I’ll ask for it. I am not a robot you can slice my skin and check I bleed,” said Kohli.

Kohli then went on to explain that players need to be rested according to his workload. “This is one thing which I don’t think people explain properly. There is a lot of talk from the outside in terms of workload – whether a player should be rested or should not be rested,” said Kohli, “All cricketers play 40 games in a year. Three guys who should get rest, their workloads are to be managed. 11 players play the game but not everyone would have batted 45 overs in an ODI game or not everyone would have bowled 30 overs in a Test match. But the ones who are doing it regularly need to be assessed because the body takes that much time to recover. People only look at ‘oh everyone has played 40 games’. They don’t look at time spent on the crease.”

All-rounder Hardik Pandya had been rested for the Sri Lanka Test series. The BCCI had stated that he had been rested so as to avoid any possibility of sustaining an injury. “Not everyone has the same kind of workload in every game. Only those who have major workload, for example Pujara during a Test season he will have maximum workload because he spends so much time at the crease. His game is built that way. So you can’t compare that to a counter-attacking batsman, because the workload would have been lesser,” said the Indian captain, “So I think all these things have to be taken into consideration. Purely because of the fact that we have built such a strong core team now of 20-25 players, you don’t want important players breaking down at important times for the team.”