BCCI Vice President Rajeev Shukla has brushed aside all the speculations about Australia series being the last for Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. Speaking to ANI, he first lauded India’s series win against West Indies at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi.
Shukla then clarified that there are no such indications about retirement from any of the two players. The speculations about their ODI future started to grow stronger when BCCI chief-selector Ajit Agarkar said that Kohli and Rohit were “non-committal” about their participation in ODI World Cup 2027. Then Rohit Sharma was also removed as the ODI Captain of India which fueled these rumours.
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Shukla, however, dismissed the noise around retirement talks saying “This is very beneficial for us (Rohit and Virat being in the ODI squad). Because both of them are great batsmen, and in the presence of both of them, I think we will be successful in defeating Australia.”
“And as far as this being their last series is concerned, it is nothing like that. We should never go into these things. It is up to the players when they would retire. To say this would be their last series is absolutely wrong,” Shukla added.
Both Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli have already retired from the Tests and T20I format. They’ll be only playing the ODIs, hence their return in Australia series comes after a long international break as they last played the Champions Trophy 2025 final which India won.
