Sourav Ganguly Discusses Challenges for Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli in ODIs

Sourav Ganguly's Insights on ODI Challenges

Former Indian cricket captain Sourav Ganguly has recently made headlines after a significant hiatus. He expressed that the recent retirements of cricket legends Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli will pose a considerable challenge for them to maintain fitness for One Day Internationals (ODIs). Both players had previously announced their retirement from T20 cricket last year. Ganguly, who once led the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), remarked that had Kohli continued his career, he might have excelled during the England tour.

“It’s certainly not going to be easy for either of them to play 15 matches a year. I think both of them understand the game as well as I do, and they’ll make their own decisions regarding this. But everyone should understand that, like everyone else, the game will eventually move on from them. These two will also move on from the game.” Ganguly stated during an interview.

“One should retire when people ask ‘why?’ — not when they start asking ‘why not?’ As a player, you always know your own place. Kohli knows that his last five years in Test cricket weren’t great, but a champion like him always finds a way to bounce back. Had Virat gone on the England tour, he would have scored heavily. But he felt it was the right time to step away.” he added.

Recently, Gautam Gambhir, the head coach of Team India, mentioned that if both players continue to perform well, they could still be considered for the next World Cup.

In response, Sourav remarked, “The World Cup is still quite far away. Before that, we have to play the T20 World Cup, which is another major tournament scheduled to be held in India in February-March. So, after the England tour, the complete focus will shift to this T20 World Cup. There is still around two and a half years between now and November-December 2027. And as I’ve said before — if they keep performing, age is just a number.”