Mumbai: Former India skipper Dilip Vengsarkar Friday supported Virat Kohli’s decision to prefer County stint over next month’s one-off Test match against Afghanistan to prepare for the challenging England tour.
“It is a good decision because, he (Virat) will get time to get acclimatised to the conditions (in England). The last tour was not a good tour for him, so he is very keen to do well,” Vengsarkar added.
“In the last four years he has established himself as the number one batsman in the world, so we expect lot of things from him and England tour will be the tour for him and I am sure he will do well”
Vengsarkar, who was the member of the 1983 World Cup-winning team also added that if he was a selector he would have asked Cheteshwar Pujara also to follow Virat and play County cricket. “If I was selector, I would have asked Pujara to stay back and play county cricket (for Yorkshire), because these are the guys who will play in England. Playing against Afghanistan makes no sense for them,” Vengsarkar stated.
Vengsarkar also felt that Test against Afghanistan was wrongly scheduled but praised the itinerary of the England tour. “The Afghanistan Test match is wrongly scheduled I feel. It’s just because of Future Tours Program, you have to play against these countries,” Vengsarkar added.
“India will get enough games to play before they play the first Test match, so players get an opportunity to get acclimatised to the conditions, so it’s a good thing.”
However, Vengsarkar also expects India to do well against England at their backyard and said: “Yes I expect a lot from the tour of England simply because they have a balanced team this time and have got fast bowlers and lots options in fast bowlers which was not the case before.”
