T20 World Cup-winning Indian captain Rohit Sharma told fans on Sunday that he "will be playing for a while", indicating that he is not yet thinking about an overall retirement from cricket.
Rohit had flown to Dallas to be present at the inauguration of a CricKingdom academy in the city. He is the brand ambassador for the company, which was setting up their first facility Stateside, to go with 30 in India, three in Singapore and one each in Bangladesh, Indonesia and Australia.
Rohit: You will see me playing for a while
During a fan interaction after the inauguration, Rohit took questions from the crowd that had gathered at the venue. When asked about his career plans in the future, he said, "I don't look that far ahead, so clearly you will see me playing at least for a while."
At least you will see me playing for a while! Says Rohit Sharma in Dallas. pic.twitter.com/wADSJZj6b5
— Vimal कुमार (@Vimalwa) July 14, 2024
Questions over Rohit's retirement have cropped up since the T20 World Cup final, which India won. Immediately following the win, three members of the squad — Rohit, Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja — announced their retirement from international cricket in the shortest format of the game. However, they are likely to continue playing in the IPL.
Rohit's retirement means India are looking for a new permanent captain for the T20I team. He is also India's skipper in the ODI and Test formats, and his comments indicate he will be active in those formats for a good while yet.
How long will Rohit Sharma play for India?
Following the T20 World Cup win, BCCI Secretary Jay Shah had mentioned that India would be looking to win the Champions Trophy and World Test Championship in 2025, making it a point to say that, "the seniors (Rohit, Kohli, Jadeja) will be there".
Seven months after denying his role in replacing Virat Kohli with Rohit Sharma as Indian captain, Sourav Ganguly recalled his influence over the same affair.
— Wisden India (@WisdenIndia) July 14, 2024
Read here🔽https://t.co/lWnshtRSKC pic.twitter.com/TkqQZIZRkv
Continuing until 2025 is more than achievable for these three players, particularly with the Border-Gavaskar Trophy coming up at the end of this calendar year. The real question is whether Rohit, most pertinently as captain of the ODI side, will continue until the 2027 50-over World Cup.
His solitary ODI World Cup as Indian captain saw the side win 10 matches in a row to reach the final on home turf, before they lost to Australia in the final in 2023. Rohit may well want to continue until 2027 in order to have another crack at that trophy, but he will be 40 years old by the time it rolls around. Whether his fitness will permit this course of action is doubtful right now.
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