3 min readUpdated: May 1, 2026 08:11 AM IST
Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma are both in the thick of their respective IPL teams’ campaigns in the 2026 season of the tournament, although the latter has been out injured for the last four matches that Mumbai Indians have played. Kohli and Rohit have retired from T20Is, making the IPL the only tournament in which fans get to see the two India veterans play in the shortest format. The pair have however shown that they are far from losing their touch.
Kohli is striking upwards of 165 in the nine innings he has played in and has consistently been in the top five of the Orange Cap table. Rohit before his injury was the struggling MI’s most consistent runscorer. In international cricket, though, the pair are now active only in ODIs, which had initially led to questions around their place in the Indian team. However, they now seem to have silenced them with some stellar performances, especially in the case of Kohli who has scored 50 or more in all but one of his last seven ODI innings for India. Three of those were converted to centuries.
Kohli and Rohit, for a better part of their careers, were famously part of India’s formidable top three in limited overs cricket which included Shikhar Dhawan. Like the pair, Dhawan also ended up playing ODIs almost exclusively towards the end of his career and he explained the challenges that come with being active only in a format that is played the least nowadays in international cricket. “Yes, when you play one format at the International level, your flow does get disrupted,” Dhawan told PTI during an interview.
“So players focus on fitness because you are not playing too many games. You are talking about Rohit and Virat and they are matured individuals. It is a challenge but they know how to convert challenge into an opportunity.
“If you look at their fitness, Virat was always fit but Rohit has undergone tremendous transformation,” said Dhawan, who scored 6793 runs in 167 ODIs at an average of 44.11 with 17 centuries. He and Rohit formed the fourth most prolific ODI opening partnership of all time, and the second most prolific Indian opening stand.
“Now with 2027 WC round the corner, they will get to play a lot of ODI matches. If you look at the time when I became a one format player, there were back to back T20 World Cups (2021 and 22) and I was playing ODIs which were few and far between. So matches wont be a problem for Rohit and Virat and there’s enough time for the event.”
