Rohit Sharma proves that Rohit Sharma is not India’s ODI problem
Imagine you are Rohit Sharma. You have been told at work that July 20th may be your last day of work. You have over 20 years of experience but have been told you don’t need any more. But then there is the lifeline. You have the last day. Can you stretch? Can you give your best when you’re told you’re not needed? Young people are waiting in the wings to take his place. Looking at it from a purely unemotional angle, maybe it’s time for someone like Yashasvi Jaiswal to have a good run. Rohit is 39. He will be 41 when the ODI World Cup starts in South Africa next year. What if he goes through a rough patch? What if his body doesn’t work in sync with his mind by 16 months?
The idea of moving on from Rohit is not entirely bad. But what if he wants to chew a little longer? What if he keeps scoring? What if he is willing stay away from vada pavs a few more years?
Yet Rohit Sharma has done it. He hit 138 off 110 balls in the third and final ODI of the series against England at Lord’s on Saturday. Yes, he started hesitantly, understandably so, with an ax hanging over his head. But as they say, he found the zone. India were set for 388 in the deciding series and Rohit scored a fatherly hundred, eclipsing Sourav Ganguly’s previous highest score of 90 at Lord’s to becoming the first Indian to hit an ODI century at the iconic venue.
Statement 100 by HITMAN!
Rohit Sharma brings up a sensational century to become the first Indian to score an ODI hundred at Lord’s! #ENGvIND 3rd ODI Streaming LIVE on JioHotstar! pic.twitter.com/sFnq0hRAHq— Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) July 19, 2026
India lost but it was not because of Rohit. More on that soon.
Rohit has more than 40 international hundreds and three ODI double centuries to his name, but ask him if Lord’s is among his favourites, and he might say yes. Playing a definitive knock with such pressure hanging over him isn’t easy, especially considering he endured a slender run coming to the decider and hadn’t scored a fifty in his previous eight ODI innings.
After speaking to the BCCI, Rohit said his job is simply to keep contributing and do justice at every opportunity that comes his way.
“If there’s no noise, there’s no fun. My job is in, their job is out. That’s how I look at it,” Rohit said, waving off suggestions that talk of selectors wanting to move on from him is little more than external noise.
“The noise since my debut has been there. And as long as I don’t stay here, it will always be there. It doesn’t matter too much. What matters is what I do on the pitch. I want to try and contribute to the team’s success. That’s all I’m focused on.”
REALLY OUTSIDE NOISE?
But was it really just outside noise? Maybe not. Former off-spinner R Ashwin, who walked out mid-series during the tour of Australia last year, said there is no smoke without fire.
“There is no smoke without fire. There was fire but now Rohit Sharma has scored and put out the fire,” Ashwin said on his YouTube channel, describing the retirement chatter as more than just outside noise.
It is no secret that the selection committee under Ajit Agarkar and the team management under Gautam Gambhir have moved on from Rohit and Virat Kohli in Test cricket while both were still willing to continue. And the decision to strip Suryakumar Yadav of the T20I captaincy, with Agarkar citing form and the need to plan for another two-year cycle, a few months after Suryakumar led India to World Cup glory, is a clear signal that this selection process is not banking on emotion. Even Rohit himself was not spared from the cold calculation: Reports claimed that the selectors they told him they would give opportunities to younger players in the future, with a view to the 2027 World Cup.
So to dismiss the speculation as mere external noise, as Ashwin put it, is not entirely fair.
SELECTIVES, LOOK AT THE RIGHT QUESTIONS
But are selectors even looking at the right issues and really thinking about the World Cup and the welfare of the team? Here’s what needs to be fixed before more energy goes into phasing out older professionals.
BUMRAH SHAPED A HOLE
Jasprit Bumrah to miss Lord’s ODI due to injury (Photo Reuters)
Bumrah played his first ODI in 968 days at Edgbaston and the difference he made was evident in the two games he played. Then at Lord’s he suffered a last minute knee injury and had to sit out the umpire and England gave the rest of the bowling group light work. With Axar Patel selected as the lone spinner, the pacers were taken to the cleaners: young Gurnoor Brar, who had impressed in his nascent career, went for 97 in his ten overs without a wicket as Arshdeep Singh and Prince Yadav battled for control alongside him. Only Prasidh Krishna with 2 for 69 offered real resistance. England cruised to 387 for 3.
Indian bowling attack looked toothless without Bumrah. And it has been like that for quite a few years. Bumrah or bust.
Captain Shubman Gill did not deviate from the pattern.
“When one player gets injured, you have to play a different combination. When two get injured, you play a different combination. I think if a player is missing after every game, we’re missing a trick somewhere,” Gill said, sounding the alarm over the team’s fitness level. By his own count, at least five players from the originally announced squad did not feature in this Lord’s defeat, including Bumrah, sidelined with a knee problem.
A bowling attack that looks so thin the moment its spike steps forward is not a succession problem. It’s a depth issue and no amount of pressure on the 39-year-old opener will solve it.
WHY NOT HAVE SIRAJ?
Since the 2023 World Cup, Siraj has played only nine of India’s 23 ODIs and was left out of the Champions Trophy squad altogether, despite carrying the heaviest load of any Indian fast bowler across formats. He was not selected for this England ODI series either. A bowler who has given his body to Test cricket and done well to be treated as surplus in a format where his skills translate just as easily is not a selection joke. It is a philosophy that needs questioning.
QUEUE WITHOUT A CLEAR ROW
Trying out new faces two years after the World Cup is not a problem. Doing it without any visible plan is. When Nitish Kumar Reddy went down with a quad injury, Suryansh Shedge was flown to UK as cover, but only for the T20Is. By the time the ODI squad was named, there was no Shedge to look at; it was Shivam Dube who was recalled to the fifty-over side for the first time since August 2024, having previously managed four ODIs and one wicket in his entire career. The 33-year-old parachuted in as a substitute is not a succession plan and once Hardik Pandya is fit again, Dube’s track record suggests he will be forgotten as quickly as he was called up.
Then there’s Harsh Dubey, the left-arm all-rounder Gill was happy to publicly emerge as the winner just weeks ago: “It’s important that we show confidence in players like him… he can bowl 10 overs for us and can also do the job with the bat if needed.” Fine words, except Dubey didn’t make the original ODI squad at all. He was only called up at Lord’s as injury cover for Washington Sundar and did not bowl a single ball after that. An all-rounder cannot audition for the World Cup from the trenches.
And somewhere in all this, Ravindra Jadeja simply disappeared from the conversation. Left out of the Afghanistan series, left out of England, not once without explanation.
Former opener Aakash Chopra said what most were thinking: “Every time a team is selected, it is said that the player will continue to play the ODI format and that he is supposed to play a key role, but he is not selected.”
Almost 3000 ODI runs and 232 wickets and the selectors won’t even say out loud whether they’ve moved on.
Testing youth is right. Doing it without a defined runway, one series here, an injury spot there, no one said how long he has to prove himself, is not a rebuild.
AND STILL NO KULDEEP
Kuldeep Yadav has played only six ODIs since the last World Cup overseas (Reuters photo)
It is he who should embarrass the team management the most. Kuldeep Yadav has 194 wickets in 121 ODIs and has not played a single match in the England series. He has been one of the best overseas bowlers for India in the recent past.
Since his debut in 2017, Kuldeep has picked 77 wickets away from home at an average of 22. He has seven spells where he has taken more than four wickets in an innings in overseas conditions. No Indian spinner has taken more wickets than Kuldeep outside India in the said period.
Yet Kuldeep has played just six ODIs away from home since the last World Cup final. Axar Patel played 12. Washington Sundar played 9.
Former Indian batsman Mohammad Kaif did not hold back.
“Kuldeep Yadav should think about packing his bags and saying goodbye to international cricket. There was no Bumrah, no Washington, no Varun today, but Kuldeep still hasn’t found a place in the XI. India’s bowling attack at Lord’s is one-dimensional and lacks variety.”
Rohit answered the only question worth asking him: can he still play the innings that the crisis demands? The Lord said yes.
Voters would do well to ask the harder question of whether the real gaps on this team have anything to do with him at all.
– The end
Issued by:
Akshay Ramesh
Published on:
Jul 22, 2026 11:09 AM IST