It is now clear that Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma have been told by the Indian cricket board – BCCI that they will have to find their way back into the country’s One-Day International team via domestic cricket.
Having retired from Tests and T20 Internationals, both the players remain active in the ODI setup. The first opportunity could come in the Vijay Hazare Trophy match scheduled for December 24, which is the only domestic one-day game between India’s three-ODI series against South Africa (December 3-9) and the upcoming series against New Zealand (starting January 11).
“The board and team management have conveyed to both of them that they will have to play domestic cricket if they want to play for India. As they both have retired from two formats, they have to play domestic cricket to be match-fit,” sources in the board told The Indian Express.strict
As quoted by The Indian Express, Rohit has already sent his availability to the Mumbai Cricket Association over his participation in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, but over Kohli, it is yet not confirmed. The 37-year-old Kohli and 38-year-old Rohit last appeared in the ODI series in Australia last month. The duo shared a match-winning stand in the final game. While Rohit played the leading role in two of the three matches, with a century coming in the third ODI, Kohli got back to form after bagging two successive ducks to score an unbeaten 87.
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Rohit has also said that he might be available for the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament starting November 26 and has been training at Mumbai’s Sharad Pawar indoor academy.
The board is also optimistic about seeing Kohli, currently resident in London, play in domestic matches. In the last season, both of them played a few domestic matches: Kohli had played a Ranji Trophy match for Delhi after 12 years and Rohit had figured in a Mumbai match after a decade-long gap.
