Former India cricketer Aakash Chopra feels that the stalwarts Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli have made their retirement in the wrong format. Instead, they should have chosen to quit the 50-over format.
Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli announced their retirement from T20Is after winning the T20 World Cup 2024 and also quit Test cricket ahead of the England series.
Day after India’s test captain Shubman Gill drawed the series 2-2 in the five match series, reports emerging that Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli could be leaving ODIs as well with both of them not in plans for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2027 unless both play domestic 50-over cricket to prove their match fitness and form.
Speaking on his Youtube channel, Aakash Chopra said, “The truth is that they have said goodbye to the wrong format. They had left T20Is after winning the T20 World Cup, but the story might have been different had they continued to play Tests and said goodbye to ODIs. India played only six ODIs in 12 months before the Champions Trophy.”
“There is a possibility that you might play only six Tests in a year, but even if it is only six Tests, it’s 30 days of cricket. If only six ODIs are played, it’s just six days of cricket over a period of time.”
“It will be more than 100 days from your last IPL match to the next ODI you will play. You are not playing at all. You are not practicing at all,” he added.
Chopra also pointed out the gaps between ODI series these days are also ‘incredibly huge’ and it would be difficult to sustain form, fitness, commitment to diet etc with just a few ODI games.
“A three-match series gets over in seven to eight days. Then the next one would be after three months. Gaps are just incredibly huge, and you won’t play first-class cricket in between.”
“It’s true that had they continued playing Test cricket and left ODIs, staying in the groove would have been a lot easier,” he said.
“When you have retired from Tests, and ODI cricket is not played much, it is not going to make a lot of sense. So just two months of high-intensity IPL, where you would get to play 14 to 16 innings, and then you would play three matches after six months, and then three matches after another three months. I think it is very, very difficult,” Aakash Chopra observed.
Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma are one of the two finest players in ODI produced by India, with Virat having made 14,181 runs in 302 matches at an average of 57.88 with 51 centuries and 74 fifties.
Meanwhile, Rohit Sharma has scored 11,168 in 272 matches at an average of 48.76 with 32 centuries and 59 fifties.
Both played ODI game in the Champions Trophy 2025 where Virat Kohli scored 218 runs in five games. Meanwhile Rohit Sharma went on to mixed tournament but nonetheless came with a title winning 76 runs in the finals, ending the tournament with 180 runs at an average of 36.00 and a strike rate of 100.00.
India’s next ODI assignment will be three matches against Australia, starting from October 19 onwards.
