Retirement speculation surrounding Rohit Sharma reached fever pitch in recent days, following multiple reports that the veteran India batter would not be considered for selection after the team’s tour of England. Amidst intense talk over his future, Rohit delivered a masterful 138 in the final ODI at Lord’s, also declaring that the “noise will be there”. In light of the speculation regarding Rohit, legendary India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin stated two reasons why it would be extremely difficult to drop Rohit or Virat Kohli from the Indian team.
“They cannot touch Virat and Rohit if they want to play. It is because of their credentials. Rohit has scored almost 12,000 runs; they cannot touch him,” Ashwin said, speaking on his Hindi YouTube channel ‘Ash ki Baat’.
“The other thing is, they cannot be touched because they are batters. They have an army, a battalion. People come to see them. If you drop them, it will just break the roof down,” he also said.
“But if Shami, Siraj or Bhuvneshwar are not picked, 10 people will question. 100 people, 1000 people, maybe 10,000 people will question. But they won’t make noise. If a day comes when people would make noise for bowlers, it would be difficult to drop them as well,” Ashwin explained.
Rohit Sharma Finds His Groove Again
On the back of intense scrutiny, amid reports that the BCCI selection committee are not considering him for the 2027 World Cup, Rohit delivered a masterclass in the third ODI against England at Lord’s.
After a couple of scratchy outings in the first two ODIs, Rohit appeared to be back at his very best as he slammed 138 off 110 balls. It seemed that the pressure over his spot in the Indian team had not affected him one bit, as he hammered 17 fours and five sixes.
Rohit took apart England’s very best bowlers in the chase of 388, keeping India’s faint hopes of victory alive for nearly the entire game.