Former India player turned veteran commentator Aakash Chopra has added that Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma shouldn’t have retired from Tests as well. He shared that playing only ODI cricket won’t allow the duo to play or practice much as well. Kohli and Rohit retired from T20Is after Team India’s win in the 2024 T20 World Cup. And, they eventually called it quits from the Tests before the recently concluded Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy as well.

In a video shared on his YouTube channel, ‘Aakash Chopra,’ he said, “The truth is that they have said goodbye to the wrong format. They had left T20Is after winning the T20 World Cup, but the story might have been different had they continued to play Tests and said goodbye to ODIs. India played only six ODIs in 12 months before the Champions Trophy.”

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“There is a possibility that you might play only six Tests in a year, but even if it’s only six Tests, it’s 30 days of cricket. If only six ODIs are played, it’s just six days of cricket over a period of time. It will be more than 100 days from your last IPL match to the next ODI you will play. You are not playing at all. You are not practicing at all,” he further added.

However, Aakash Chopra added that it would be difficult for Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma to stay in touch if they play only ODIs as well.

“A three-match series gets over in seven to eight days. Then the next one would be after three months. Gaps are just incredibly huge, and you won’t play first-class cricket in between. It’s true that had they continued playing Test cricket and left ODIs, staying in the groove would have been a lot easier,” he explained.

“When you have retired from Tests, and ODI cricket isn’t played much, it’s not going to make a lot of sense. So just two months of high-intensity IPL, where you would get to play 14 to 16 innings, and then you would play three matches after six months, and then three matches after another three months. I think it is very, very difficult,” Aakash Chopra concluded.