Foillowing India's 7-wicket victory over West Indies in 2nd Test, head coach Gautam Gambhir shared his take on Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli's participation in the 2027 ODI World Cup. There have been a lot of speculations over the duo's ODI future and there are many who feel that they will not be able to continue in the team's ODI set-up until the Worlkd Cup arrives.
However, Gambhir feels that rather than focusing too much on the World Cup that is still two years away, both Rohit and Kohli should rather focus on having a successful Australia tour. The duo will be making their much-awaited return to international cricket in the upcoming three-match ODI series against the Baggy Greens that will commence from October 19.
“ODI World Cup is two and a half years away. It is important to stay in the present. They are both quality players. Hopefully, those 2 will have a successful tour,” Gambhir said in the post-match press-conference.
Rohit and Virat made their last international appearance earlier this year in March against New Zealand in the Champions Trophy final. The two were expected to play key roles in the Men in Blue's five-match Test series against England, but ended up announcing their retirements from the longest format in May. With India not participating in many ODIs, they had to wait for quite a bit in order to return to the international circuit.
India's schedule for Australia series
The opening match of the ODI series between India and Australia will be played at the Optus Stadium in Perth. The action will then move to Adelaide where the second ODI will be contested on October 23 and the series finale will be held at the Sydney Crickket Ground on October 25. After the conclusion of this assignment, the two teams will be battling it out in a five-match T20I series, starting from October 29.
India's squad for Australia ODIs: Shubman Gill (Captain), Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer (VC), Axar Patel, KL Rahul (WK), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Mohammed Siraj, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Dhruv Jurel (WK), Yashasvi Jaiswal.