Mumbai: Rohit Sharma may be pushing 40, and plays just one format of international cricket (ODIs).
Talk about Rohit Sharma’s imminent retirement has been floating over several months, but the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is in no mood to discuss the end of his international career yet.
BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia urged against feeding speculation over Rohit’s future, saying the former Team India captain is “playing superbly” and making it clear that there is no immediate threat to his place in the ODI squad.
“He (Rohit) is playing superbly in all matches. He scored 130 in the last match he played. What more do you want? Why is there speculation? I don’t want to give fodder to speculation,” Saikia said after BCCI’s high-level review meeting in Mumbai on Thursday.
The meeting was attended by head coach Gautam Gambhir, ODI captain Shubman Gill, T20I skipper Shreyas Iyer, BCCI president Mithun Manhas and Saikia.
Interestingly, chief selector Ajit Agarkar did not attend the meeting at the BCCI headquarters. Agarkar’s tenure will end in October.
“So, today we did not have any selection meeting. We had a routine meeting, like we have frequent meetings after the interval of a good three months. We had a meeting today with the head coach, the head of cricket, COE, as well as two of the captains, the T20 captain for us, as well as the Test and ODI captain, Shubman,” said Saikia.
“We basically discussed how our team performed in England and Ireland, basically, and also what we are going to do in the next one year. So, the roadmap has been prepared, and we’ll be doing some exercises so that we have a very good performance in 2027,” he added.
With the ODI World Cup – to be co-hosted by South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia — just over a year away (October 4 to November 21, 2027), it’s time that India started planning and preparing.
Hence, there has been widespread speculation over Rohit’s presence at next year’s World Cup, when he will 40 years and five months.
The speculation reached fever pitch during the England tour earlier this year with reports suggesting that the Lord’s ODI could be Rohit’s final appearance for India. Out on the field at the iconic venue, Rohit scored a century, albeit in a losing cause.
“If there’s no noise, there’s no fun. My job is inside; their job is outside. That’s how I look at it,” Rohit had said.
A PTI report claimed ahead of Thursday’s meeting that one of the national selectors had informed Rohit that the selection committee had decided to move on from him.
The issue was to be taken up at the meeting, as per multiple media reports.
Today, the BCCI laid to rest all speculation.
