Although Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli have returned to the ODI setup, the end of their careers could be imminent as the Australia tour looms as far as netizens go. Ajit Agarkar, the chief of selectors, remained tight-lipped about the futures of Rohit and Kohli, keeping in mind the 2027 World Cup. Notably, Gill has replaced Rohit as the ODI skipper.
Rohit and Kohli haven't played competitive cricket since IPL 2025, having announced their retirements from Test and T20I cricket. Although the prolific batting duo have had storied careers across formats, the selectors are seemingly keen to give youngsters some game time. Agarkar also reasoned that Rohit was communicated about the captaincy change before hand. He said, as quoted by The Indian Express:
"It’s practically impossible to have three different captains across the three formats. At some stage, we need to start looking ahead to the next World Cup and give the next captain at least some time to prepare. We don’t have many ODI games at the moment, but there might be more as we approach the ODI World Cup."
Watch some of the netizens' reactions:
Team India's squads:
India’s ODI squad: Shubman Gill (Captain), Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer (VC), Axar Patel, KL Rahul (WK), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Mohammed Siraj, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Dhruv Jurel (WK), Yashasvi Jaiswal.
India’s T20I squad: Suryakumar Yadav (C), Abhishek Sharma, Shubman Gill (VC), Tilak Varma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Jitesh Sharma (WK), Varun Chakaravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Sanju Samson (WK), Rinku Singh, Washington Sundar.
The tour of Australia begins on October 19, with the first of the three ODIs set to be hosted by the Optus Stadium in Perth. The two sides will also play five T20Is to prepare for the World Cup next year in India and Sri Lanka.
