Former India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin shared his disappointment with the way the team’s long-term vision is being conveyed to the veteran duo Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli ahead of the Australia tour. However, the team management appointed Shubman Gill as the ODI captain, replacing Rohit Sharma. Although both Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli were named in the 15-member squad for the three-match series, there is still a lack of clarity regarding their future, especially for the 2027 ODI World Cup.
“I really hope the conversation has happened with Virat and Rohit. But if the conversation has happened now, why did it not happen after they said they were retiring after the 2024 T20 World Cup? It could have happened then itself. Had it happened back then, they could have thought about whether to continue playing or not, because this is the direction the team is wishing to head towards,” R Ashwin said on his YouTube channel.
“But now, this current situation leaves a lot of uninformed space. When there is uninformed decision-making that is put outside, you leave a lot of room for speculation. Why is the communication not coming from the players? Because there is not much communication happening, it is not going from here to there. If the communication is not clean, transparent, and not done with the vision moving forward, it leaves the players in a very tender space. Considering the magnitude of Virat and Rohit’s contribution to Indian cricket, I think there should be better communication not only to them, but to everyone else,” Ashwin again shared.
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“Let’s face it, if Rohit and Virat get to the 2027 World Cup at this age, I would really, really, take my cap off to both of them because it needs a lot of commitment. They are not getting much cricket beyond the IPL, so it would be an incredible achievement, but we need to give them the chance to attempt the achievement,” he further added.
However, Team India have garnered a reputation for nudging the veterans towards the exit door in recent times. There has been a lot of retirements of late, with Ravichandran Ashwin and Cheteshwar Pujara retiring from international cricket, while Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli also retired from Tests in an unceremonious fashion.
“All the new guys on the block who are playing with the Indian team, they won’t know the magnitude of what all of this leaves on the minds of players like Virat and Rohit. When the new guys reach that stage of their careers then they will understand that what happened to them will also end up happening to us. More than anything else, I would not go into right or wrong, but just a little bit of sensitivity was necessary, considering their contributions to Indian cricket. The communication should have been even more solid and clear,” R Ashwin concluded.
