For the Australia ODIs, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma were picked, marking their return to international cricket for the first time since the Champions Trophy. Former India skipper Sunil Gavaskar calculated Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli’s decision to make themselves available for the One day international series against Australia was more agenda-driven than making themselves part of the scheme of the scheme of things for the ODI World Cup 2027.
Indian Cricket team will tour Australia for the three ODIs along with five T20Is, with the series beginning on 19 October. This tournament will spot preparation of Indian team for the ICC 50-over event in South Africa.
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Ajit Agarkar, BCCI’s chief of the selection committee, named Kohli and Rohit for the upcoming Australia series on Saturday, which marked their return to international cricket for the first time since the Champions Trophy tournament in the UAE earlier this year 2025. While the fast bowler of India did not carry out to them yet being part of the World Cup 2027 plans, their presentation in the series could go a long way.
However, Sunil Gavaskar strongly trusted Kohli and Rohit only made themselves available due to it is a series against Australia, against whom India had lost in the 2023 World Cup final at home. Gavaskar added that if the series was against West Indies or Zimbabwe, their pause would have continued.
Gavaskar said India Today “I am pretty certain that if this were a Zimbabwe or the West Indies, both of them would not have been available. But because this is in Australia, and because India lost to Australia in the World Cup final, may be that is the reason why both of them have decided, yes, I want to be available for this,”
“It depends to a great extent on the number of one-day matches that India plays over the next couple of years. Look, it’s not easy to be playing just seven or eight ODIs in a season while preparing for something as big as a World Cup,” he added.
“For those eight white-ball matches, there are probably five T20s and three ODIs. That is not giving much in terms of exposure or practice for players who are approaching the latter stages of their careers.”
As like Ajit Agarkar, Sunil Gavaskar also forced the requirement for Kohli and Rohit to make themselves available for the Vijay Hazare Trophy to make their world Cup dreams alive.
