Former India captain Rohit Sharma was spotted at the Sharad Pawar Cricket Academy at the BKC Ground in Mumbai on Saturday, November 8, as he began his preparations for the upcoming ODI series against South Africa. Rohit had a light training session and walked into the venue as Mumbai took on Himachal Pradesh in the fourth round of the Ranji Trophy.
Rohit was seen jogging and doing light exercise at the complex before sitting down to watch a portion of the Ranji Trophy match featuring Shardul Thakur led Mumbai against Ankush Bains’ Himachal Pradesh.
According to reports, Rohit came close to the nets during the lunch break and watched the players practice. He was also seen interacting with his former teammate Dhawal Kulkarni, who is now Mumbai’s bowling coach.
It remains unclear whether Rohit buckled down and batted in the nets on Saturday.
Looking lean and trim, Rohit arrived for the light training in a blue T-shirt and gray trousers.
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India will play three ODIs against South Africa between 30 November and 6 December. Rohit and Virat Kohli have not been selected for India A’s series against South Africa to be held in Rajkot from November 13-19. Tilak Varma will lead the India A side and Rohit and Kohli were widely expected to feature.
Rohit has made BKC his main training base since the beginning of the year. Ahead of the October tour of Australia, his first international engagement in six months, Rohit has been working hard on his fitness and conditioning at BKC. Led by Abhishek Nayar, completed an intensive 12-week training regime, during which he lost more than 10 kilograms.
“A lot of people would be surprised by that. Even Team India’s strength and conditioning coach, Adrian Le Roux, would abuse me! But he did 700-800 reps for each body part. It was almost an hour and a half every day. Imagine if you were doing chest and triceps, you ended up doing 800 reps. With a lot of reps and long reps, we did that goal. He ended each session with about 15 to 20 minutes of CrossFit, which it’s more cardio and movement based. It was six days a week, three hours a day, for three months,” said Nayar, reflecting on Rohit’s hard work.
The effort paid off in Australia, where Rohit ended the three-match ODI series with 202 runs, including a century in the ODI final in Sydney. Rohit took a while to find his rhythm after four months without competitive cricket, but the star batsman ended the series by showing the world that he is more than ready for the tough grind in his bid to play in the 2027 ODI World Cup.
Rohit won the player of the series award after stitching a match-winning stand of 167 runs in the final in Sydney with Virat Kohli hitting his fifty after two consecutive ducks. Rohit also became the oldest world number one batter in one day cricket.
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Issued by:
Akshay Ramesh
Published on:
November 8, 2025
