Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma have always lived under the spotlight. Regardless of form or phase, scrutiny has followed them everywhere. But 2025 was unlike any other year for India’s two senior-most batters. Despite everything they have achieved, both were, at different points, deemed expendable, outdated and nearing the end of their relevance in Indian cricket.
Written off after a lean Test tour of Australia, speculated out of international cricket following their sudden Test retirements, and later surrounded by uncertainty over their ODI futures, Kohli and Rohit found themselves battling perception as much as performance. Yet, time and again, they responded the only way they know how, by scoring runs and reaffirming their relevance, whether on the international stage or in domestic cricket.
What remains conspicuously missing, however, is a clear and public endorsement from head coach Gautam Gambhir and chief selector Ajit Agarkar on where the duo fits into India’s roadmap to the 2027 ODI World Cup.
The Champions Trophy rebuttal
In hindsight, 2024 proved to be the precursor to the questions that would define Kohli and Rohit’s 2025. Their exit from T20I cricket after the World Cup triumph in Barbados reopened an emotional debate around what lay ahead for the two senior batters. Yet, the discussion quickly subsided, given their unwavering commitment to Test and ODI cricket. If anything, the heartbreak of falling short at the 2023 ODI World Cup on home soil had only strengthened their resolve. Both had, on multiple occasions, admitted that 2027 remained their target, a timeline that was naturally assumed to be theirs to call.
But over the next seven months, the narrative shifted dramatically.
Kohli and Rohit found themselves under scrutiny over their place in Test cricket. Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting was among those who raised questions, pointing out that no player, barring Kohli, with just two Test hundreds in the last five years would have survived in the side. Kohli’s most recent century during that stretch had come in the West Indies tour of 2023. Rohit, meanwhile, struggled for rhythm. Between 2020 and 2024, he managed 1,838 runs at an average of 31.68, with just two hundreds.
Kohli appeared to have bought himself time with a century in the Perth opener of the 2024–25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy. But a modest return of 90 runs across the remaining eight innings curtailed that momentum. Rohit’s tour was even more sobering: 31 runs in five innings, part of a bleak Test season that yielded only 164 runs in eight matches, with a solitary fifty. His decision to drop himself from the XI in the series finale only fuelled speculation. Kohli, too, was not spared.
A brief Ranji Trophy appearance upon returning home did little to calm the noise. Instead, the uncertainty deepened.
But just as the conversation threatened to spill into their ODI futures, Kohli and Rohit silenced it emphatically, with a Champions Trophy triumph. Kohli emerged as India’s second-highest run-scorer, amassing 218 runs in five matches, including a century and a fifty. Rohit, leading India to a second ICC title in nine months, contributed 180 runs, highlighted by a vital fifty, while once again lifting silverware as captain.
Goodbye to Tests. ODIs next?
A narrative as powerful as the one questioning the Test careers of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma was never going to fade quietly. For a brief period, it did pause, buried under Champions Trophy celebrations and the IPL that followed. But by early May, speculation returned with renewed force.
Reports floated multiple possibilities: that the England tour would be a final audition, that Rohit could be stripped of captaincy, or that both veterans might struggle to even make the XI. Then came the moment that stunned the cricketing world. Two social media posts, five days apart, shut down all debate. Rohit announced his Test retirement first. Kohli followed soon after, both decisions coming barely two weeks before the selectors were due to meet.
The chatter instantly shifted. The BCCI found itself at the centre of whispers, accused in some quarters of nudging two icons into retirement. But Shubman Gill’s young Indian side’s performances through the summer briefly redirected the spotlight. It didn’t last.
By late July, the conversation had evolved again, this time to their ODI futures. One report suggested the Australia tour in October could mark the end of an era. Another claimed the BCCI office was divided over their place in Indian cricket going forward. Age was an obvious factor, but the deeper concern lay elsewhere: sustaining form and fitness for two more years while playing only one format, with no consistent domestic cricket commitment.
Gambhir and Agarkar did little to silence the noise. Both remained publicly non-committal about Kohli and Rohit featuring in India’s long-term plans for the 2027 ODI World Cup in South Africa, a stance that only fuelled the uncertainty surrounding two of India’s greatest modern-day cricketers.
Kohli-Rohit show commitment
Despite the concerns, Kohli and Rohit were picked for the ODI leg in Australia, and they responded emphatically. The defining moment came in the series finale in Sydney, where the duo rolled back the years with a match-winning century partnership. Rohit followed his half-century in the second ODI with a commanding hundred in the decider to claim the Player of the Match award, while Kohli sealed the series with an unbeaten fifty.
Kohli then carried that momentum into the home series against South Africa in November, producing back-to-back centuries to earn another Player of the Match honour. Rohit, too, chipped in with a crucial fifty, underlining his continued value at the top of the order.
Yet, even that wasn’t enough to silence the doubts within the corridors of power. Gambhir maintained his guarded stance, while chief selector Agarkar hinted that the board wanted visible domestic commitment. Reports suggested that unless the senior duo turned up for the Vijay Hazare Trophy, their ODI future could be in jeopardy.
Kohli and Rohit didn’t argue. They responded on the field.
Both featured in the domestic tournament and made immediate statements, centuries on the opening day to power their respective sides to victory, with Kohli following it up with a fifty in the next game. It was a clear message: they are not stepping aside quietly, and they are ready to take on any test thrown their way to validate their commitment to the 2027 ODI World Cup.
The runs have answered questions; now, all that’s left is for the answer to come back from the other side. With an ODI series against New Zealand at home looming, after which India will stay away from the format until the England tour next July, there is hope that clarity from Gambhir and Agarkar may finally follow. That tour will mark the official start of India’s World Cup build-up. Whether it also brings certainty around Kohli and Rohit’s place in that roadmap is the question that still lingers.
