'They might asked to consider their future...': Sunil Gavaskar's blunt take on claims Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma would've changed India’s fate

As India suffered their second Test series whitewash in the last 12 months, a section of experts questions whether the team management and selectors need to move on from Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma and begin a transition phase with a young core led by Shubman Gill. The debate started when India's batting order collapsed against South Africa in the two-Test match series of the Freedom Trophy.

India vs South Africa Test series

In the first Test match at Eden Gardens, the Men in Blue failed to chase down 124 runs as South Africa won that clash by 30 runs. After that, Team India suffered a humiliating 408-run defeat as the Temba Bavuma-led side whitewashed the hosts 2-0.

Sunil Gavaskar on Rohit and Virat's Test retirement

However, in the exclusive chat with AajTak, Gavaskar firmly rejected the theory that Kohli and Rohit would have changed India’s fate, stressing that even they wouldn't have been able to rescue the team against South Africa.

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"No, the call to take retirements must have been their call. Probably, they might have been asked to consider their future. But we can't say that had they been here, we would have won. They were there when we lost to New Zealand. What happened when they were there? We lost 0-3, no? Then what happened in Australia? We should not be thinking on these lines. No, we can't be thinking whether we pushed them to retirement. That is the wrong way to approach this," he said.

Notably, veteran India trio of Ravichandran Ashwin, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma were part of the squad during the team's series whitewash in the New Zealand Test series, and they also featured in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 in Australia, where Ashwin retired after the second Test, and Rohit, Virat retired after the series earlier this year in May. Rohit and Virat are currently in Ranchi for the three-match ODI series against South Africa, which will start from November 30.

India vs South Africa ODI schedule

1st ODI 30 November 2025 JSCA International Stadium, Ranchi
2nd ODI 3 December 2025 Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh Stadium, Raipur
3rd ODI 6 December 2025
Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA‑VDCA Stadium, Visakhapatnam

India's ODI squad against South Africa

Rohit Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Tilak Varma, KL Rahul (C) (wk), Rishabh Pant (wk), Washington Sundar, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harshit Rana, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Prasidh Krishna, Arshdeep Singh, Dhruv Jurel.