Former Indian cricketer Ravichandran Ashwin has come down in the open criticising the BCCI for its response to the current uncertainty about Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma’s future in ODI cricket. In a recent YouTube video, Ashwin questioned the board’s communication plan or the lack of it and pointed to what he perceives as a lack of sensitivity and transparency in handling two of India’s most experienced players.
“On one side is selection, on the other side is Kohli and Rohit. These are two sides of the same coin. Upon examining the selection, it is clear that the selectors are moving forward. However, in this proce ss, they have two players who are nearing the end of their careers. However, one thing I would like to mention is that you need to improve the way you handle such players. It is very easy to say that they have grown old and they should retire. One of the reasons we feel this way is that we see many young players in the IPL performing well, and we believe they can replace these experienced players. However, during this process, one thing we often overlook is solid communication and knowledge transfer. I request that this be addressed in the future,” he said.
While chief selector Ajit Agarkar dodged a straight question on whether Kohli and Rohit are in India’s long-term scheme for the 2027 ODI World Cup, Ashwin was worried about the lack of a clear transition plan. He suggested that the best time for the selectors to define their vision would have been immediately after both players made known their retirement from T20 internationals, after India’s successful T20 World Cup quest in Barbados in 2024.
“Knowledge transfer, or KT, doesn’t mean Kohli and Rohit will be teaching Shubman Gill and Abhishek Sharma new shots; rather, it will show them how to handle pressure situations and deal with injuries. The way Kohli and Rohit batted in the 2023 ODI World Cup, they have nothing to prove, but does the KT have any space? There is actually no space for KT in Indian cricket because there is no transition phase. Rahul Dravid was a coach at one time, then Gautam Gambhir took over. We did not have any template that, after Dravid, Gambhir would be the coach, so taking a KT from Dravid was not possible. And after Gambhir, for whom will the KT go? If there is no roadmap from the management side, this cannot happen from the players’ side.”
Instead of opining on if it was right or wrong to appoint Shubman Gill as the new ODI captain or whether Kohli and Rohit should be included in the team for the Australia series, Ashwin chose to comment on the larger issue of communication. He maintained that Indian cricket has no systematic process while changing gears across generations, citing a knowledge-sharing gap and leadership succession planning gap.
” I really hope the conversation has already taken place with Kohli and Rohit. But if it happened now, why didn’t it happen during their retirement from T20Is in the World Cup last year? Had they been told then, they would have said, ‘Okay, boss, do we want to play because this is what the team wants to take a direction and this is what the choices are?’ But this leaves a lot of uninformed space, which leads to speculations. And there shouldn’t be speculations. It should have been a straight conversation. If the communication is not clear and transparent, and if it is not done with a forward-looking vision, it leaves players in a very vulnerable position,” he said
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Although he did not confirm if Kohli and Rohit were told about their roles at the last minute before the Australia ODIs, Ashwin pointed out that had that been the case, it would have been wrong. For such players, he maintained, decisions regarding their future should have been made well in advance, if possible when they retired from T20Is, so that there was clear communication, respect, and easy team transition.
“Given the magnitude of their contribution to Indian cricket, there was a need for communication, not only to them, but also to everyone, explaining how we communicated and what it entails. There are still two years until the World Cup, and if they do make it, I will take my hat off to both of them, because that would require immense commitment, as they won’t get much cricket beyond the IPL. For them to achieve it, they need that opportunity, and they have deserved that respect. So that sensitivity was required.”
