ICC Champions Trophy 2025: Indian skipper Rohit Sharma's first reaction after winning the recently concluded mega-event was to put all the speculations around his retirement to rest. "One more thing. I'm not going to retire from this format, just to make sure that no rumors are spread moving forward," he told the reporters during the post-match press conference. Although, he did not reveal much as to when will he play he is open to the idea of playing till the 2027 ODI World Cup. As per the latest report, he is eyeing the 2027 ODI World Cup, which will be held in South Africa and Abhishek Nayar, who is team India's assistant coach had a huge role to play in making this decision.
As per Cricbuzz, Rohit is planning to extend his ODI career till the 2027 World Cup and is aiming to win the third ICC trophy and then retire from white-ball cricket. He announced his retirement from the shortest format last year after leading the team from the front to a triumphant 2024 T20 World Cup.
According to Cricbuzz, Rohit has made a plan to stay fit for the 2027 mega-event. One of the highlights of this plan is to work with Nayar, who would be helping him to stay focused and fit and would also work on his batting.
"A key part of his plans is likely to be Nayar, who is regarded as a highly intelligent coach with modern techniques and styles. Many players in the Indian team, including KL Rahul, have either worked with him or are currently working with him. Rahul has credited Nayar on more than one occasion for the guidance he got from Nayar and continues to work with him. Rohit will team up with his former Mumbai teammate as part of his preparation," the report said.
What about Rohit's Test future?
Apart from ODIs, he hasn't been at his absolute best in the longest format recently and also had to miss the fifth and the last Test match during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy earlier this year. Post that, he was also seen struggling during the Ranji Trophy and it thus led to speculations about his future in this format.
According to the report, Rohit still wants to play Test cricket actively but his future would depend on the way he would perform in IPL 2025. After the cash-rich league tournament, the Men in Blue would then face England for a five-match Test series and the selectors haven't decided on the Indian skipper yet. A well-known source was asked as to whether Rohit would be picked for this Test series, to which the source revealed, "Let the IPL be over first. Only an astrologer thinks so far ahead into the future."