Former India spinner R Ashwin said that the Indian team management cannot drop senior players Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli from the ODI team. He added that nobody can touch them as long as they themselves want to continue playing international cricket as well. His comments came amid Sharma’s ODI retirement rumours, where Rohit answered his critics with a stunning 138 off 110 in the series decider against England at Lord’s in London on Sunday, July 19 as well.

He said on his YouTube channel, Ash Ki Baat: “They cannot touch Virat and Rohit if they want to play. It is because of their credentials. Rohit has scored almost 12,000 runs; they cannot touch him. The other thing is that they are batters, and if you touch them, they have an army. People come to see them. If you drop them, it will just break the roof down.”

“But if Shami, Siraj, and Bhuvneshwar are not picked, just a maximum of ten thousand people would raise questions. There would not be that much noise. If a day comes when people would make noise for bowlers, it would be difficult to drop them as well. Actually, it is impossible to drop Virat and Rohit. But such rules do not apply to the bowlers,” Ashwin further added.

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“All the experienced bowlers like Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammad Shami, and Mohammed Siraj have done well, and they all have a good chance. There will be help on the wickets in South Africa. You need to keep everyone in contention in this case scenario,” he stated.

However, R Ashwin also applauded Rohit Sharma following his century. However, he added that Rohit could have won the game for India by scoring 180 runs had he been high on confidence.

The former India cricketer said in the same video: “This is a phenomenal knock. He was set after hitting that pull to Josh Tongue. I feel that this is Rohit’s road to a comeback after an injury. If he were in a slightly better state or were more confident, he could have scored 180 and won the match for the team. I felt like Rohit was in really good form,” he added.

“The position he is in and the way he batted, it’s not that difficult for him. We have seen him for so many years; there’s nothing left to prove. Whom does he have to prove? It is only about the internal appetite: I want to go to the World Cup, that’s why I need to play like this,” R Ashwin concluded.