Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma will be hoping they have a better time of it in Adelaide during the second ODI between India and Australia than in the first of the three-match series. Rohit fell after scoring just eight runs while Kohli was dismissed for a duck. Moreover, this was their first international appearance in over seven months and that these scores came amid scrutiny over the veteran players’ role in the team now that they have retired from Tests and T20Is. Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting has said that Kohli and Rohit would be guaranteed a spot in any Indian team at their best but it remains to be seen if they can get back up to those levels in this series.
“The one thing I don’t like hearing from anyone is that ‘I’ve achieved everything in the game’ because I think you still have to have some really short-term goals and not just be hanging on to try and get through to the 2027 World Cup,” Ponting said on ICC Review.
“Virat’s always been a highly motivated person. And I’d like to think that he’s probably sat down and even just given himself some goals and things that he can achieve in this series here in Australia and not be just waiting and killing time for that next World Cup to come around.
“What we know with both of those guys, at their absolute best, yes, of course they’re in India’s best team. But can they find their best between now and when that World Cup rocks around? And that’s only an answer that… that we’ll find out in a short period of time (during the series),” said Ponting.
Rohit and Kohli retired from T20Is and Tests around the same time last year and this year respectively. Kohli first announced the end of his T20I career after powering India to the 2024 T20 World Cup title with a player of the match performance in the final. Just hours later, Rohit, who was captain of the team, also said that the thriller of a final against South Africa was his last T20I.
Both players then endured a forgettable Test series in Australia. Rohit in particular scored a meagre 31 runs across five innings. Kohli, meanwhile, scored a century early in the series, an unbeaten 100 not out in Perth, but then scored just 90 more runs across eight innings he played apart from that. Rohit first announced his retirement from Test cricket on May 7 as captain of the team, after which Shubman Gill took over the mantle. Kohli then announced the end of his Test career on May 12. The retirements meant that both Rohit and Kohli are now active only in ODIs, a format that is not played as often as the other two these days in international cricket.
