Ashwin Says BCCI Owed Kohli and Rohit an Answer Months Ago

Ravichandran Ashwin says India’s selectors owe Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma a clear answer about their place in the 2027 World Cup squad. The former India off-spinner made the case on his YouTube show one day before a series-deciding ODI at Lord’s, hours after the BCCI denied that Sunday’s match could be Rohit’s international farewell.

Buried in his argument was a name barely mentioned all week: Yashasvi Jaiswal, the 24-year-old opener who keeps scoring centuries and still can’t hold a regular place in India’s one-day side. BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia, meanwhile, told PTI there has been no discussion of ending Rohit’s ODI career this weekend.

BCCI Shuts Down Talk of a Farewell at Lord’s

The speculation traces to a report from the wire agency IANS, which said the Ajit Agarkar-led national selection committee was unlikely to pick Rohit for one-day cricket after Sunday’s series finale. Saikia rejected that framing directly when PTI put it to him on Friday.

“There are lot of speculations going on in media about Rohit Sharma’s future. I want to firmly assert that there has been no such discussion that Rohit will be playing his last match at Lord’s on Sunday,” Saikia said, according to PTI.

The denial arrives with the series level at 1-1. India won the series opener in Birmingham by six wickets, then slipped from 178 for 3 to lose the second match in Cardiff after a dropped catch that swung the momentum England’s way, with Joe Root finishing unbeaten on 99 to level the series. That win snapped a six-match England losing streak against India in ODIs, raising the stakes at Lord’s beyond just selection.

What we know:

• The India-England ODI series is level at 1-1 heading into Sunday’s decider at Lord’s.
• BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia has denied any decision to make Lord’s a farewell match for Rohit.
• Rohit’s last two innings this series read 11 and 26.
• Yashasvi Jaiswal was left out of the touring squad despite an unbeaten century in his previous international innings.

What’s unconfirmed:

• Whether IANS’ report that selectors plan to drop Rohit after Lord’s holds up.
• Whether the same fate is being weighed for Kohli, who Ashwin says has “been excellent.”
• Whether selectors will address 2027 World Cup plans before India’s tour of South Africa in September.

Nothing in that list resolves on its own. It waits on a conversation Ashwin says should already have happened.

Ashwin Presses Selectors for a Straight Answer

Ashwin’s complaint is about communication. He wants selectors, coaches or the captain to tell Kohli and Rohit directly if their World Cup place is already decided, rather than let it play out through leaks and speculation.

“I am thinking we are going to South Africa in September and October. Do we need Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma? If you ask me, I will say we need that experience,” Ashwin said on his YouTube show, Ash Ki Baat. “I know Yashasvi Jaiswal is pushing hard from behind, but if you ever felt as a selector, coach or captain that we don’t want these players in the 2027 World Cup, then you could have communicated that at the end of the Champions Trophy.”

India won that Champions Trophy in March 2025. Seventeen months have passed since then, and Ashwin’s frustration is that the conversation is surfacing now, in public, rather than through a private word from team management.

“Beyond all the speculation, Rohit and Virat have been performing. If you really wanted to make such a transition, why has this discussion come only now, in August 2026, when there are only 10 to 12 months left before the Cricket World Cup?” Ashwin said.

His tone has hardened over two months. In June, Ashwin compared Kohli and Rohit’s chances of reaching the 2027 tournament to a marriage, saying it would take “good energy” from both sides and that he saw no reason they should miss out. By August, with retirement chatter swirling specifically around Rohit, his message had shifted from encouragement to a call for a final decision.

Ashwin also argued that indecision carries its own cost, separate from whatever selectors eventually choose.

If you’re in a house where people don’t want you to stay, can you really live comfortably?

Ashwin said on Ash Ki Baat, drawing on his own experience of being told a team no longer needed him.

Is Rohit Sharma Actually Out of Form?

Rohit has scored 711 runs since the start of 2025 at an average of 44.43, with two centuries and four fifties. His last two innings against England, though, read 11 and 26, both ending in soft dismissals that have fed the retirement chatter.

In the series opener at Birmingham, Rohit was out for 11 off 21 balls, caught by Harry Brook off Sam Curran. In Cardiff, he added a slow 26 off 47 balls, playing eight dot balls in a row before top-edging a sweep off Will Jacks to the wicketkeeper.

Kohli has been the more convincing of the two. He has scored 891 runs since 2025 at an average of 68.53, with four centuries and five fifties, and followed up with 65 off 66 balls in Cardiff alongside a Shreyas Iyer fifty, though neither innings stopped England’s chase.

That third row is where Ashwin’s argument gets complicated. Jaiswal’s average is the best of the three, and he has barely played.

Cricket’s Most Patient Understudy

Jaiswal answered with a century of his own weeks before this series even began. In the final match of a home series against Afghanistan in Chennai in June, he shared a 170-run opening stand in 22.5 overs with Rohit, then finished unbeaten on 110 off 86 balls as India completed a nine-wicket win. It was his second ODI hundred in six innings, both of them match-winning.

Jaiswal’s rise took an unusual path for a modern Indian batter. He made his Test debut century against the West Indies in 2023, but did not earn an ODI cap until February 2025, eighteen months later, and has played only six ODIs since.

Despite that record, national selectors left Jaiswal out of India’s touring squad for England entirely, alongside Ravindra Jadeja and Hardik Pandya. Aakash Chopra, a former India opener turned commentator, said the pattern leaves a clear impression.

“Yashasvi Jaiswal is getting so few opportunities that you feel he is not part of the scheme of things,” Chopra said on his YouTube channel. He noted Jaiswal has mostly played as a stand-in, replacing an unavailable Kohli in one series and an injured Nitish Kumar Reddy in another.

• Yashasvi Jaiswal – left out of the ODI squad weeks after his unbeaten century against Afghanistan
• Ravindra Jadeja – omitted entirely as selectors push ahead with a transition plan
• Hardik Pandya – left out of the squad over fitness concerns

The churn is not limited to bowlers and all-rounders either. When KL Rahul fell ill before the Cardiff ODI, Ishan Kishan got his chance and lasted eight balls for a single run before falling to Sam Curran. The queue behind India’s top order is long, and mostly waiting.

Ashwin’s Own Retirement Shows How This Goes

Ashwin is not a neutral voice on this question. He lived through his own version of it in December 2024, when he announced his retirement from all international cricket at a press conference after the drawn third Test against Australia at the Gabba, sitting beside then-captain Rohit.

“Even when the coach came and communicated with me in Australia that they wanted to look past me, I accepted it,” Ashwin said on his show. “One bad series can happen to any player, but you have to communicate with the player.”

The public account of that day was less clear-cut than Ashwin’s retelling suggests. Rohit later said Ashwin had been weighing retirement since the Perth Test and had to be talked into playing the pink-ball match in Adelaide before deciding, after Brisbane, that he was done. Either way, Ashwin walked away with 537 Test wickets, second only to Anil Kumble’s 619 for India, and has called that day his last as an international cricketer since.

South Africa Comes Before Any World Cup Verdict

Whatever selectors eventually decide, the next test arrives before any of this is settled on paper. India tours South Africa in September and October, the trip Ashwin cited directly when he asked whether the team still needs Kohli and Rohit’s experience.

India will also be without Washington Sundar at Lord’s. The all-rounder injured his hamstring while batting in Cardiff and did not bowl in the second innings, thinning out India’s options in a match it must now win to avoid a series defeat in England.

Play begins at 11 am local time on Sunday. Saikia’s denial remains the only official word so far on how long Rohit and Kohli’s one-day careers will run, and the selectors have set no date to say more.