New Delhi. After the Indian cricket team’s embarrassing defeat against New Zealand, Sachin Tendulkar has raised questions about Team India’s preparation. The Master Blaster clearly said that it seemed like the great batsmen of the Indian team came to play without any preparation. Now it comes to light that Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma were offered by the BCCI to take part in the Duleep Trophy to prepare ahead of the Test series.

New Zealand showed India a mirror ahead of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. For the first time, the New Zealand team defeated India in a Test series in India. India had to face a whitewash in the Test series on home soil. In the Mumbai Test, the Indian batting order fell apart like a pack of cards while chasing an easy target of 147 runs. India lost the third and final Test by 25 runs. Rishabh Pant fought alone and played a courageous innings of 64 runs.

According to the Indian Express report, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja were given a chance to take part in the Duleep Trophy by the selection committee led by chief selector Ajit Agarkar. All were offered to join the team, but they stayed away from the competition due to fatigue.

KL Rahul, Shubman Gill and Rishabh Pant, who were part of the team selected against New Zealand, took part in the tournament in preparation. A camp was organized in Chennai ahead of the five home Test matches against Bangladesh and New Zealand. Led by Rohit Sharma, the Indian team won the series against Bangladesh 2-0, but the New Zealand team managed a clean sweep.

Tags: Duleep Trophy, India vs New Zealand, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli