People who say such things don’t know what happens inside - ‘irked’ Rohit Sharma addresses questions on Virat Kohli’s form

Virat Kohli scored his first overseas ton since 2018 when he made 121 vs West Indies in the second Test at Trinidad, playing a major hand in India’s dominance, only to have incessant rains throughout Day 5 put a rude halt to any chances of the visitors’ win. 

Despite Kohli averaging 54.66 across formats since the start of 2023, with four centuries and two fifties from 16 innings, India captain Rohit Sharma, in a press conference, was asked about the “concerns” surrounding the former not converting his scores into big knocks. 

Rohit quashed any lingering doubts of unrest around Kohli’s form, merely zeroing down on the question marks on his form as a form of “outside noise”. 

The Indian captain said, “I've answered this question a lot of times. All the outside talk, who scored how many, took how many wickets... people who say such things don't know what happens inside.”

He continued, “For us, what happens inside stays inside. We prefer that. For us, the most important thing is to win matches or series, not who's talking about what. It doesn't matter to us. Our priority is the three ODI matches right now and we're focusing on that.”

Kohli will play a key role in the ODI series for India as he returns to the No.3 spot, 102 runs away from reaching the 13,000-run mark in the 50-over format.