The BCCI’s decision, led by chief selector Ajit Agarkar, to replace Rohit Sharma as India’s ODI captain with Shubman Gill for the upcoming white-ball tour of Australia, signals that the era of Rohit and Virat Kohli in ODIs may soon be drawing to a close.
“We don’t know whether Rohit Sharma will be ready for the 2027 World Cup. He only plays ODIs now, and if we see the international calendar, the Indian team isn’t playing too many ODIs. If he only plays 5-7 ODIs in a year, he won’t get that kind of practice, which you need for a big tournament like a World Cup. If his place in the team isn’t certain, the decision to prepare Shubman Gill was taken,” Sunil Gavaskar told Sports Tak.
Notably, by the time the 2027 World Cup arrives in South Africa, Rohit will be 40 and Kohli nearing 39. Both have already retired from Tests and T20Is, leaving ODIs as their only format. But with India’s international calendar dominated by Test series and T20Is, opportunities to play ODIs are few and far between. So for Rohit and Kohli, chances of playing in the 27 World Cup are very slim.
Rohit and Kohli should be ready for more bad news?
“Personally, he (Rohit) has done a lot — won us the Champions Trophy and the T20 World Cup before that. There’s no two ways about his captaincy. But even he agrees with this decision because if you need to think two years ahead, then a young captain needs to be prepared,” Gavaskar lauded.
However, India is scheduled to play 27 more ODIs before 2027, and Rohit-Kohli’s reluctance to play in domestic tournaments like the Vijay Hazare Trophy further complicates matters.
“Of course. If you are non-committal, if you can't say whether you’ll be ready for the next two years, be ready P [for bad news?]. Even they are aware that if they only have to play ODI, there are rarely any. For that, they need to practice more and play something like the Vijay Hazare Trophy. This is possibly why they have taken that stance,” he warned.
Rohit and Kohli will return for the Australia ODI series beginning October 19.
