"Definitely! I do need rest, why wouldn't I?" queried Virat Kohli yesterday. "When I feel my body needs to be rested I will ask for it, and why not? I'm not a robot; you can slice my skin and check if I still bleed," he added for good measure. Hardik Pandya resting before the Sri Lanka series has brought the focus back on burnouts. "There's a lot of talk from the outside on workload and whether a player should be rested or not. For example, if all cricketers play 40 games a year but not everyone in the XI would have batted 45 overs in a match, or not bowled 30 overs in a Test. The guys who are doing that regularly are the ones who need to be assessed," he said.

Indian cricket captain Virat Kohli during a training session at Eden Garden in Kolkata on Monday ahead of the 1st Test Match against Sri Lanka. Pic/PTI