Former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan has suggested Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli to play domestic cricket to maintain game fitness for the 2027 ODI World Cup, mentioning their reduced international schedule. This advice of Irfan Pathan comes after replacing Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill takes over as India’s new ODI captain, and will also lead in Tests.
Pathan’s advice follows announcement of chief selector Ajit Agarkar of appointment of Shubman Gill as One day International captain, replacing Rohit Sharma.
In 2024, both Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli have withdrawn from T20Is and in early 2025 they withdrawn from Test cricket. Currently both Virat and Rohit only participate in bilateral ODIs, which resulted a reduction in frequency due to commercial factors, along with the IPL T20 tournament.
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Irfan Pathan told on his YouTube channel “Rohit and Virat want to play the 2027 World Cup, but game fitness will be a big challenge for them. Rohit has worked well on his fitness. He is focused on that. But there is regular fitness, and game time fitness…If you are not playing regular cricket, both of them have to ensure some game time. They have to play domestic cricket,”
“They are big players and know what to do. They have all the experience in the world. But they are not even playing T20is, so there will be big gaps between the few matches that they play before the big World Cup.They will need regular game time to be fit for that. Only then will their dream to play the 2027 World Cup come true.”
The upcoming ODI tour of Australia will spot the starting of Shubman Gill’s leadership.
Following this, domestic season of India will start in winter, featuring the Vijay Hazare Trophy, the premier List-A tournament of country. Neither Rohit nor Kohli has participated in this domestic competition for some years.
He added “There is a leadership change; Gill will lead in both formats now. This is a big opportunity but a huge responsibility too. He has to take forward Virat’s legacy in Test cricket and Rohit’s legacy in white-ball cricket. This is a challenging but exciting phase for him as he is already batting well, he will need to keep that form going,”
