If this were a Zimbabwe or West Indies tour, Virat Kohli & Rohit Sharma wouldn’t have been available: Sunil Gavaskar

Former Indian cricketer Sunil Gavaskar has taken a dig at the Indian talismanic batting duo of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma after their selection in the three-match ODI series vs Australia, starting on October 19.

Speaking exclusively on India Today, Gavaskar stated that if this were a tour of Zimbabwe or the West Indies, the star batting duo wouldn’t have been available. However, since India suffered a loss to Australia in the ICC ODI World Cup 2023 final, they have decided to play this series against them.

Moreover, the former Indian captain also talked about the batting duo’s chances of playing the ICC ODI World Cup 2027 in South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Namibia. Interestingly, Kohli & Rohit didn’t take part in any domestic tournaments since they last played international cricket in March 2025.

"I am pretty certain that if this were a trip to Zimbabwe or the West Indies, both of them wouldn’t have been available. But because this is in Australia and because India lost to Australia in the World Cup final, maybe that is the reason why both of them have decided, yes, I want to be available for this," Gavaskar said to India Today.

"It depends to a great extent on the number of one-day matches that India plays over the next couple of years. Look, it isn’t easy to be playing just seven or eight ODIs in a season while preparing for something as big as a World Cup," he added.

India’s ODI squad for the Australia 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.

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