Rohit Sharma backs Virat Kohli: 'If media can keep quite for a while, everything will be alright'

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Kolkata, February 15: In no mood to talk about the prolonged lean patch that Virat Kohli is enduring, India captain Rohit Sharma on Tuesday (February 15) said "everything will fall in place" if the chatter around him stops.

Ahead of the T20I series against the West Indies starting Wednesday (February 16), media queries were once again focussed on Kohli's batting form and Rohit wasn't pleased.

"I think it starts from you guys," Rohit was curt in his first response. "If you guys (media) can keep quiet for a while, everything will be alright. If talking from your side stops, everything will be taken care of," he added, in support of his predecessor.

Rohit said Kohli is not under any pressure and will come good soon.

"He is in a very good space and he has been part of international team for more than a decade. He has spent so much time in international cricket that he knows how to handle pressure situations," Rohit said, not amused at repeated queries on Kohli's form, during the virtual press conference.

"So I think everything starts from you guys. If you guys can keep it quiet for a bit everything will fall in place," he added.

Kohli has not scored a hundred for more than two years in international cricket.

In ODIs, it has been three years since his last century. He has 44 hundreds in the format overall.

But Kohli has scored a lot of half centuries which is an indication that he is not exactly in wretched form.

On Tuesday, it was apparent that Rohit isn't pleased about Kohli being singled out for scrutiny at every media interaction. After the last game in the ODI series, Rohit was more playful when asked if Kohli needs a bit of confidence.

"Virat Kohli ko confidence ki zaroorat hai. Kya baat kar rahe ho yaar (Virat Kohli lacks confidence? What are you saying?)," he had said in jest. On Tuesday, he looked far more serious.

Auction over, focus on T20Is

Rohit said that Indian Premier League (IPL) mega auction is over and the focus of everyone on his side should be on the colour 'blue' and the mission should be to do best for the country.

“It was understood that guys will go through ups and downs, some emotional feeling within themselves on which team they will play for in the IPL. But that was done the day before yesterday, we had a great meeting with everyone and we asked them to focus on the colour blue for the next two weeks.

“Whatever has happened has happened, for the next two weeks, they have to focus on playing for India, nothing else," said Rohit.

"That is something we spoke of and all these guys are professionals, you can expect once they wear India colours, it is all about India, nothing else matters," he added.

Rohit's franchise Mumbai Indians picked up Ishan Kishan for Rs 15.25 crore in the mega auction. However, the India white-ball skipper stressed that right now the focus remains on playing for the country.

"There is no consideration of IPL here honestly. We are not looking at where will players bat for their franchise in the IPL, we are looking at where they will bat for Team India, as simple as that.

“We will be focusing on this, these guys do different roles for their franchises, what we need from them here is important. IPL will happen later, we will take care of it them," said Rohit.

"This is the time for us to do things and guys have been spoken to on what we are expecting out of them. Whether it is bowler or batter, the clarity has been given to them and it is up to them on how they want to adapt," he added.