Virat Kohli not in Test Team of the year: Lalchand Rajput questions 'weird' timing of ICC Awards

New Delhi, Dec 23: Absence of India's Test skipper Virat Kohli's name from the ICC Test Team of the year 2016 has surprised fans and experts equally.

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Kohli, who has been in supreme form in the year 2016, has not been included into the Test squad of the year because those in the side have outscored him during the voting period of 14 September 2015 to 20 September 2016.

The Delhi dasher scored 451 runs at an average of 45.10 in 8 Tests during that time period. His highest score during this time was 200 against the West Indies.

Post September 20, Kohli has slammed 3 centuries, including two double hundreds. The 28-year-old right-hander averages 80.33 since then with 964 runs in 8 Tests with 3 hundreds (highest score of 235 Vs England).

This led to many questioning the process by the game's global body. Former India cricketer and manager during India's T20 World Cup win, Lalchand Rajput has questioned the timing of ICC's announcement.

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Kohli was, however, picked as the captain of ICC's ODI team of the year 2016.

As per a DNA newspaper's report, Rajput, who is the coach of Afghanistan cricket team, opined that the global cricket body should have made the announcement in October itself if they were considering the players' performances in between September 2015 and 2016.

"I am really surprised. Kohli had such a wonderful year not just as a batsman but as a leader for India as well," said Lalchand Rajput.

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Like several cricket fans the timing of ICC release didn't go down well with Rajput too.

"They should have released it in the last week of September or first week of October. You can't do that when the calendar year is ending, it looks weird," Rajput added.

The former India cricketer also advised the ICC to change its cut-off date and keept it in tandem with the calendar year.

"The ICC should consider changing from September to September cut off date and keep it from January to December, which will make it easier and more justifiable as cricket is played throughout the year and there is hardly any off season," added Rajput.

The Test team was picked by legends Rahul Dravid and Kumar Sangakkara along with Gary Kirsten. The trio would have taken into consideration all statistics of batsmen, bowlers and all-rounders before finalising the list.

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