Following a poor performance in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024–25, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, two of Team India's star batsmen, recently announced their retirement from Test cricket. After winning the 2024 ICC T20 World Cup, they had both already quit T20Is, and the difficulty of scoring runs in Australia compelled them to seriously consider their prospects in Test matches. For the majority of the past ten years, Rohit and Kohli have been the cornerstones of India's batting lineup. They will now only play for India in ODIs, where they just won the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy. Their upcoming major mission is to win the 2027 ODI World Cup, which will be held in South Africa in two years.

It will be difficult for Kohli and Rohit to stay in shape between now and October 2027, when there are just a few games planned. Indeed, the IPL takes place annually, but Kohli and Rohit face an uphill battle as a result of the declining number of one-day internationals – India will play at least 27 games through December 2026 – as well as their age and lack of game experience. The challenges that India's stalwarts will face in their preparation moving forward were discussed by former Indian cricketer Atul Wassan. The ODI format, he claimed, is played less frequently than Tests and T20Is, which makes it even more challenging for Ro-Ko to win their first 50-over World Cup championship as a team.

Among the many outstanding awards in Kohli's trophy room are his 2011 ODI World Cup, Champions Trophy championships in 2013 and 2025, and a T20 World Cup win in 2024. On the other hand, Rohit is still trying to win his first ODI World Cup, which he came close to doing in 2023 when India was defeated by Australia in the championship.

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"Since IPL only lasts two months a year, I believe it will be quite difficult for Virat and Rohit to maintain their fitness levels by simply participating in it. Additionally, because it's less inspiring for them, they often don't compete against smaller squads like Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. On the OTTPlay app's Bails and Banter Show, Wassan stated that they want a greater challenge in front of them to get them going.

After the conclusion of the IPL 2025, Kohli and Rohit will only be back in national service in October for a three-game ODI series against Australia. It will be fascinating to observe how these seasoned athletes preserve their shape and sharpness over the prolonged hiatus. The major issue is whether they will participate in local cricket in order to maintain their game readiness, particularly considering the dearth of ODI games lately.

The decline of ODIs

Additionally, Wassan pointed out that ODI cricket is losing popularity since the hype is now only centered on World Cup games. "The appeal is exclusive to the World Cups, and it is becoming increasingly hard to view ODI cricket. Even I, as a commentator, have a hard time explaining things to the audience, so one would rather see paint dry," he stated.

"I recently traveled to Sri Lanka to provide commentary for ODI matches featuring up-and-coming players. As we are now accustomed to the T20 format, I was counting overs in between. However, Test matches provide a fascinating forum for discussion about players' methods, pitches, and bowlers.

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