Ahmedabad: India's Virat Kohli during the third ODI match between India and England at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Wednesday, February 12, 2025. (Photo: IANS/Siddharaj Solanki)
New Delhi, October 3 (IANS) Stalwarts Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli are on the verge of returning to India’s ODI setup as the Ajit Agarkar-led selection committee prepares to announce squads for the upcoming white-ball tour of Australia.
Both senior batters, who last featured for India in the triumphant 2025 Champions Trophy campaign, had stepped away from T20Is after a winning 2024 T20 World Cup campaign and retired from Test cricket in May this year.
IANS understands that the two squads could be picked by the selectors on Saturday, but its announcement timing depends on when the first Test against the West Indies at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad is over.
It will also be the first meeting RP Singh and Pragyan Ojha will attend as national selectors after being appointed as new members of the five-member panel at the BCCI AGM on September 28.
“There’s been a steady enquiry on fitness status of all players who are in frame to be picked for the tour. Now upto the selectors on who they pick for which format for the Australia trip,” said sources aware of the developments to IANS on Friday.
Though they haven’t played any competitive cricket after IPL 2025, both Rohit and Kohli have been steadily preparing for a busy block of ODI cricket action coming in next few months. Rohit had even come down to the BCCI Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Bengaluru for some work on his batting and fitness.
India’s tour of Australia begins with three ODIs to be played on October 19 (Perth), October 23 (Adelaide), and October 25 (Sydney). It is followed by a five-match T20I series from October 29 to November 8.
In terms of player availability, while a majority of core is to be retained for the two formats, IANS understands that there’s no word yet on whether Hardik Pandya is fit to go to Australia. Hardik had sustained a quad injury during the Super Over win over Sri Lanka in the T20 Asia Cup and missed out on playing in the title clash.
If Pandya remains sidelined for the entire tour, Nitish Kumar Reddy could join Shivam Dube for the seam-bowling all-rounder slot options on the tour. Wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant has been progressing well in the rehab at CoE for a fractured right foot.
But his availability depends on what the selectors decide on seeing his fitness report during the selection meeting. With KL Rahul set to take the gloves in ODIs, Sanju Samson could be drafted in for the 50-over games as second keeper and retain his place in the T20I team. It would be interesting to see if Dhruv Jurel, who hit his maiden Test century, is
Giving a break to Jasprit Bumrah, Shubman Gill and Kuldeep Yadav will also be on minds’ of the selectors, considering the tight scheduling and travel demands in Australia. It would be interesting to see how much break – either at the start or mid of the tour - is given to Gill, Bumrah and Kuldeep, as India are also scheduled to play two Tests against South Africa at home, starting on November 14 in Kolkata.
A potential rest to Gill would mean Abhishek Sharma, currently with India A team for 50-over games against Australia A in Kanpur, Yashasvi Jaiswal or B Sai Sudharsan come into the picture as his direct replacements depending on the format the right-handed batter is rested from.
