Former Indian player and coach Ravi Shastri has given great advice to Virat Kohli and said that he should not play that last ODI against New Zealand. Shastri believes that in view of the upcoming Border Gavaskar Test series against Australia, Kohli needs to play red ball cricket, so he should sweat it out in Ranji Trophy by skipping the last ODI. India has to play the last ODI against New Zealand on January 24 and from this day the Delhi team has to face Hyderabad in the Ranji Trophy.

Indian youth brigade had broken Australia’s ‘pride of Gabba’ on this day, these players including Rishabh Pant and Shubman Gill became heroes

This series is going to be very important for India to enter the final of the World Test Championship. In such a situation, the form of Virat Kohli will mean a lot for India. Kohli has achieved form in ODI cricket with T20, but runs are yet to come out of his bat in Tests. Kohli scored just 45 runs in the recent two-match Test series against Bangladesh.

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Ravi Shastri during commentary in India vs New Zealand 1st ODI said, ‘I have always believed that you should play first class cricket, especially when you have to play a lot of matches in India. I feel our top players are not playing much first class cricket. There is a lot of cricket being played at the moment which is why you don’t want to take risks, but sometimes you have to be smart and look at the bigger picture and may have to drop a few matches. The bigger picture is Australia at the moment.

He further said, ’25 years ago, Sachin Tendulkar went to play against an Australian team in the CCI and scored a double hundred there. Two months later in 1998, he scored over 1000 runs in all formats against Australia. He scored a brilliant double hundred and Australia knew they would not be able to get this guy out quickly.

This advice of Virat Kohli came in handy for Shardul Thakur and Team India, hit in one ball

Let me tell you, Virat Kohli has been selected only for the ODI series against New Zealand, so if he misses the last ODI against the Kiwis, he will get enough time to prepare for the Border Gavaskar Test series. The first Test between India and Australia is to be played from 9 February.