BCCI wants Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma to play domestic cricket to be eligible for India selection

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) sources have disclosed that the Indian veteran batters Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma should take part in the domestic tournaments to be eligible for national team selection for the South African ODI series.

A report in The Indian Express mentioned that the Indian opening batter Rohit Sharma has informed the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) that he will be available to play the Vijay Hazare Trophy 2025-26 campaign. He has been practicing at the Sharad Pawar Indoor Academy in Mumbai. 

Interestingly, the report mentioned that there is no clarity on Virat Kohli’s participation in domestic cricket yet. Also, Rohit Sharma is ready to play the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2025-26 season. 

“The board and team management have conveyed to both of them that they will have to play domestic cricket if they want to play for India. As they both have retired from two formats, they have to play domestic cricket to be match-fit,” sources in the board told The Indian Express.

For the unversed, most recently, the Indian chief selector Ajit Agarkar had asserted that there is a need for players to make it mandatory to turn up in domestic cricket before making their comeback to the Indian team.

“We made it clear a year, or a couple of years back, that whenever players are available, they should be playing domestic cricket. That’s the only way you’ll keep yourself sharp and playing cricket, if you’ve got a long enough break. Whether that’s possible with the international cricket you’re playing or not, only time will tell, but if the guys are free, they should be playing domestic cricket,” Chief Selector Ajit Agarkar had said.

While the Indian talismanic batting duo announced their T20I retirement after the end of the T20 World Cup 2024 campaign, they called it quits in the longest format of the game ahead of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy this year in the new WTC 2025-27 cycle.

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