A new report has claimed that Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma may retire from ODIs after the Australia series.
With Indian cricketing action still a month away after the epic England tour, the rumour mill has started buzzing, keeping fans on tenterhooks – and the latest chatter concerns the immediate future of India’s, and arguably cricket’s, two greatest white-ball players: Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma.
Both have already called time on their Test and T20I careers, with their sole focus now on the ODI World Cup scheduled in Africa in 2027. While many believe the two greats will be eyeing the quadrennial event as the perfect career swansong, a report in Dainik Jagran speculates that things may not be as straightforward.
According to the national daily, the Australia series could be the last time we see Kohli and Rohit feature in ODIs for India, and they may announce their retirement after the series. The report, citing a BCCI source, further adds that if both players indeed have the 2027 World Cup in mind, they will need to play the Vijay Hazare Trophy – India’s premier domestic one-day tournament – in December this year.
This would be similar to how Indian players were asked to participate in the Ranji Trophy ahead of selection for India’s tour of England earlier this year.
The rationale behind potentially moving on from Rohit and Kohli in the ODI format is India’s growing depth of young talent in the white-ball setup. The BCCI management and selectors, the report claims, are keeping the 2027 World Cup selection cycle in mind.
While both Rohit and Kohli turned out for their respective sides in the Ranji Trophy after a poor Border-Gavaskar Trophy, they had announced their retirements from the longer format in May, before the squad for the England tour was announced. They also took their T20I retirements together, soon after India clinched the 2024 T20 World Cup in Barbados.
India’s next ODI assignment is the away white-ball tour of Australia, starting October 19. The matches will be played in Perth, Adelaide and Sydney.