Former Indian batter Sanjay Manjrekar wants Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma to take the backseat in the Champions Trophy and let the other in-form batters take more responsibility of doing the lion’s share of the scoring.

Manjrekar highlighted that Kohli and Rohit are not at their absolute best and they must let the likes of Shubman Gill and Shreyas Iyer lead from the front. 

Shubman Gill and Shreyas Iyer are in fine form as they recently scored 259 and 181 runs respectively in three ODIs against England. While Rohit Sharma scored an impressive knock of 119 runs off just 90 balls in the second ODI at Cuttack, Kohli scored a decent knock of 52 runs at Ahmedabad. But the veteran duo could not perform consistently on the Australian tour in the Test series.

Sanjay Manjrekar said on ESPN Cricinfo, “The expectations from fans would be about them getting big hundreds and leading India to another win. But the more realistic expectation and what would be sensible is to also know what unfolded in that series against England where Shreyas Iyer and Shubman Gill looked a class apart. And you could see evidence of players in their prime – Shreyas Iyer and Shubman Gill vs two stalwarts not quite at their prime.”

“At this stage, it makes lot of sense for Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli to be facilitators rather than the flag-bearers, leading from the front. They must realize, now, at this stage, they mustn’t take the burden that the fortunes of the team depend on how they play because there are enough good players down the order. That is a luxury they should look to enjoy rather than feel the burden of pressure and expectation as to they are the ones who have to contribute.”

Meanwhile, Kohli has scored 529 runs in 13 matches of the Champions Trophy at an impressive average of 88.16 and has a strike rate of more than 92.

On the other hand, Rohit Sharma has scored 481 runs in 10 matches of the Champions Trophy at an average of 53.44.

India will begin their Champions Trophy campaign against Bangladesh in Dubai on February 20.