Virat Kohli And Rohit Sharma Will Not Retire After The ODI Series In Australia: BCCI Vice-President Rajiv Shukla Reveals

BCCI Vice-President Rajiv Shukla has dropped a major bombshell on the futures of former India captains Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli in One-day internationals. This comes just 4 days before Shubman Gill leads the ODI team for the first time in the 3-match series against Australia from October 19 onwards.

There is plenty of buzz and excitement around this series, majorly for two reasons. First is that it will be Shubman Gill's first real test as an ODI captain after taking over the reigns in the longest format earlier this year. Secondly it will be Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli's first international appearance since winning the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 in March.

Speculations around these two cricketer's futures have been making a lot of news, with many believing that a quite series with the bat will lead to their permanent departure from the Indian team. Others feel that it will be unfair to judge them or get them out of the team on the basis of these 3 matches.

The last time both Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli played high-stakes competitive cricket was during the IPL 2025 edition, where the latter finally won the trophy after 18 years of agony.

Fans will be happy to see their favourite stars take the field once again, at the same time they are also fearful about this 3-match series being their last. But there is a twist in the tale.

BCCI Vice-President Rajiv Shukla, during an interview with ANI, recently made positive claims about Ro-Ko's future. Shukla dismissed all speculations about the duo's retirement and possible exit after the series in Australia.

"As far as this being their last series is concerned, it is nothing like that. We should never go into these things. It is up to the players when they would retire. To say this would be their last series is absolutely wrong." - Shukla told ANI.

The 66-year-old further stated that Rohit and Kohli's presence in the Indian team will benefit the young squad and affirmed that India will successfully beat the Aussies on their backyard.

"This is very beneficial for us (Rohit and Kohli's presence). Because both of them are great batsmen, and in the presence of both of them, I think we will be successful in defeating Australia." - Rajiv Shukla added.

The 3-match ODI series will start from Perth's Optus Stadium on October 19th. The 2nd (23 Oct) and 3rd (25 Oct) will take place in Adelaide and Sydney respectively. India will also play a 5-match T20I series from 29th October to 8th November.

India's squad for the ODI series - 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.

India's squad for the T20I series - Suryakumar Yadav (C), Abhishek Sharma, Shubman Gill (VC), Tilak Varma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Jitesh Sharma (WK), Varun Chakaravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Sanju Samson (WK), Rinku Singh, Washington Sundar.