India batting stalwarts Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli will likely to feature in at least three, if not four, Vijay Hazare Trophy matches before the New Zealand ODI series, which is scheduled to take place in January.
PTI reported that the duo will have to play two Vijay Hazare Trophy games before the New Zealand series if they are still aiming to play the 2027 World Cup.
When will Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli feature in the Vijay Hazare Trophy?
Notably, between the conclusion of South Africa ODIs and the start of the New Zealand leg, there will be at least six rounds of Vijay Hazare Trophy games for Delhi and Mumbai, and the national selectors reportedly expect that the ageing duo play in the ODI event.
Earlier, after India's defeat in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25, Ajit Agarkar, the chairman of selectors, made it clear that every centrally contracted player who is fit and available is expected to play domestic cricket.
"Between last ODI against South Africa on December 6 at Visakhapatnam and the first ODI against New Zealand at Vadodara on January 11, there is a gap of five weeks.
"The Vijay Hazare Trophy starts on December 24. There will be six rounds of games for Mumbai (December 24, 26, 29, 31, Jan 3, 6, 8). Rohit will be expected to at least play three rounds before linking up with the squad. Ditto for Virat," a BCCI source told PTI on conditions of anonymity as quoted by PTI
When did Rohit and Virat feature for the last time Vijay Hazare Trophy?
The duo haven’t played the domestic competition in a while. Virat Kohli’s last game in the Vijay Hazare Trophy came in February 2010. He captained Delhi in that clash. On the other hand, Rohit Sharma’s last Vijay Hazare Trophy game came in October 2018. He featured in two games, as he wasn’t a regular test player at the time. Playing for Mumbai, the opener remained unbeaten on 33 in the quarter-final against Bihar. He managed 17 off 24 in the semi-final against Hyderabad.
Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli's last international outing
Notably, Rohit and Virat have already retired from T20Is and Tests. The duo announced their T20I retirement after the team's T20 World Cup win in 2024, and their Test retirement came in May 2025 before the five-Test match series of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy 2025. The duo's last international outing came in the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 final against New Zealand.
Rohit, Virat's upcoming assignment
Rohit and Virat will now be seen in action in the upcoming three-match ODI series against Australia, which is scheduled to start from October 19. Rohit, who captained India in their last ODI assignment, will now be seen featuring as a batter as the BCCI appointed Shubman Gill as his sucessor to lead the side in the 50-over format.
India’s ODI squad vs Australia
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.