Virat Kohli: I'm not a robot; slice my skin and check if I bleed

"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

He added: "Time spent at the crease, number of runs, number of overs, conditions should all be taken into account. "I don't think people will go into that analysis. For example, Pujara will have maximum workload because he spends maximum time at the crease as his game is built that way. You can't compare that to a counter-attacking batsman because the workload would be lesser," said Kohli.

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