'Not a robot; will ask for rest when needed'

Reports were circulating that Kohli has asked the Indian selectors for rest after the second Test against Sri Lanka and the succeeding One-Day International (ODI) series.

Chief National Selector M.S.K. Prasad, though, refuted all rumours later saying that Kohli had made himself available for selection for all the three Test matches and the selectors would look at resting the skipper only after that.

"I do need rest, why don't I need rest? When I think of the time my body should be rested, I'll ask for it. I am not a robot you can slice my skin and check I bleed," Kohli told reporters on the eve of India's first Test against Sri Lanka at the Eden Gardens from Thursday.

Asked about managing the workload with all-rounder Hardik Pandya being rested for the first two Tests, Kohli said players who give that much extra on the field need rest, and the situation is sometimes not understood by all.

"This is one thing which I don't think people explain properly. There is a lot of talk from the outside regarding workload -- whether a player should be rested or should not be rested. All cricketers play 40 games in a year. Three guys who should get rest, their workloads are to be managed. 11 players play the game, but not everyone would have batted 45 overs in an ODI game, or not everyone would have bowled 30 overs in a Test match," Kohli assessed.

"But the ones who are doing it regularly need to be assessed because the body takes that much time to recover. People only look at 'oh everyone has played 40 games'. They don't look at time spent on the crease.

"The number of runs that have been run between the wicket, the number of overs bowled in severe conditions, what were the conditions, what were the temperatures like, have the bodies recovered or not -- I don't think people go into that analysis. So from the outside, it looks like 'why are people asking for rest, everyone has played the same number of games'.

"But not everyone has the same kind of workload in every game. Only those who have a significant workload, for example, Pujara during a Test season he will have maximum workload because he spends so much time at the crease. His game is built that way. So you can't compare that to a counter-attacking batsman because the workload would have been lesser."