“It’s absolutely wrong” - BCCI vice-president opens up on Virat Kohli & Rohit Sharma playing ODI series vs Australia

On Tuesday, October 14, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) vice-president Rajeev Shukla shared his views on the Indian talismanic batting duo Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma making their international comeback after a long gap.

Speaking exclusively on ANI, Shukla stated that it’s absolutely wrong to think of the Australian tour as the last series for the Indian talismanic batting duo, as the cricketers make their own decisions when it comes to retirement. 

"This is very beneficial for us (Rohit and Virat being in the ODI squad). Because both of them are great batsmen, and in the presence of both of them, I think we will be successful in defeating Australia. And 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 said as quoted by India Today.

For the unversed, Kohli and Rohit announced their Test retirement ahead of the England tour. The Indian selectors, led by Ajit Agarkar, were quick to bring in Shubman Gill as the new Test captain.

Moreover, Gill was later elevated as the vice-captain of the Indian T20I team. Meanwhile, Gill will replace Rohit Sharma as the ODI captain in the upcoming three-match series against Australia Down Under, starting on October 19.

India’s ODI squad: 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 T20I squad: 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.

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