The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has dismissed the speculation that Sunday’s ODI against England at Lord’s will be Rohit Sharma’s last international appearance.
The BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia has confirmed that no such discussion has taken place. “There are a lot of speculations going on in the media about Rohit Sharma’s future. I want to firmly assert that there has been no such discussion that Rohit will be playing his last match at Lord’s on Sunday,” said Saikia.
The BCCI secretary has stopped short of condemning the speculation surrounding the veteran opener’s long-term future, but made it clear that Rohit remains part of India’s ODI plans.
“Rohit is a regular member of the Indian ODI team and he will continue to represent the country as long as he is in the scheme of things. In other words, Lord’s ODI won’t be his last match,” Saikia added.
The veteran batter has stated desire to play until the 2027 ODI World Cup, however his returned with scores of 11 and 26 in the recently concluded ODI games against England.
After India’s defeat in the 2nd ODI against England, batting coach Sitanshu Kotak said that Rohit has not got runs in the first couple of matches, he is too good a player to be under pressure over his future.
“See, I don’t think a big player like Rohit Sharma can have any sort of pressure. He’s too good a player to feel that. Yes, he didn’t get runs in the opening two matches, but I don’t think that makes any difference. But today, it also looked like he’d probably get a good innings going. But that’s okay,” said Kotak.
However, several reports had claimed that head coach Gautam Gambhir and Ajit Agarkar are same wavelength that Virat Kohli is an automatic choice given his form and fitness but not Rohit.
Rohit Sharma is currently playing in the limited over format after announcing retirement from T20I and Test format.
