'Our Policy Is Quite Clear': BCCI Vice-President Clears The Air Around Rohit Sharma And Virat Kohli's Speculated ODI Retirement Plans

Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, two stalwarts of Indian cricket, two former Indian Test captains, have been grabbing a lot of eyeballs for the past few weeks. There is a lot of chatter around the star duo’s speculated ODI retirements, and it refuses to die down. For the unversed, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli have already retired from the Test and the T20I format, but they are still playing the One Day International (ODI) format.

Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli’s last appearance for India came in the Champions Trophy earlier this year. India won the tournament undefeated, and Rohit Sharma became only the second Indian captain after MS Dhoni to win two ICC Trophies. Several unconfirmed reports also claimed that the BCCI had an honest conversation with the star duo regarding their future. Virat and Rohit were also reportedly asked to play the Vijay Hazare Trophy in order to remain in sync with ODI cricket.

BCCI Vice-President Rajeev Shukla was recently asked about Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma’s ODI retirements while he was attending the UP T20 League.

“BCCI policy is quite clear; we don’t ask anyone to retire, they have to make their decisions themselves. He has to take that call, and we respect that. They haven’t taken retirement, so why are you talking and worrying about their farewell? Retirement from two formats, that’s the phases, but they are still playing ODIs,” said the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) Vice-President. Rohit and Virat will now be seen in action when India tour Australia for a white-ball series.

Shubman Gill’s appointment as the vice-captain indicates towards the fact that the BCCI is subtly moving towards unified captaincy in Indian cricket. Just when everybody was convinced that Shubman Gill was next in line to become India’s all-format captain, several reports broke out that the BCCI was considering Shreyas Iyer to be appointed as India’s next ODI captain.

Rohit Sharma is still playing the ODI format for India, and till the time he continues to wear the India blues, Shreyas Iyer and Shubman Gill will have to wait for their turn.