Is It the End of Virat Kohli And Rohit Sharma? In the latest ICC rankings released by the ICC on August 20, Tuesday, India’s opener Shubman Gill retained his spot as the No. 1 ranked ICC ODI batsman. Following Gill on this list were two more Indians: Shreyas Iyer at No. 6 and KL Rahul at No. 13.
All three of them had played crucial roles during India’s title-winning run at the ICC Champions Trophy earlier this year in Dubai.
However, what shocked everyone was the absence of the Indian cricket’s two biggest superstars of the modern age: Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma.
It is indeed quite surprising that neither Kohli nor Rohit was mentioned, not just in the Top 10 or Top 20; they were not part of the Top 100 of the ICC ODI Batsman ranking!
Only last week, Rohit Sharma, the current India ODI skipper, had moved to No. 2, and Virat Kohli was in the 4th position in the ODI Batsman rankings.
The latest ICC ODI Batsman rankings has Pakistan’s Babar Azam at No. 2, New Zealand’s Daryl Mitchell at No. 3, and Sri Lanka’s Charith Asalanka at No. 4.
It’s interesting to wonder why and how Rohit and Kohli dropped out of ICC’s Top 100 batsmen.
Is It the End of Virat Kohli And Rohit Sharma in International Cricket
Firstly, a retirement announcement for any player comes from their own social media handle or from the board’s press release. Never has a player informed the ICC of their retirement prior to their cricket board.
Secondly, even if a player retires, he will not suddenly be dropped out of the ICC rankings. He will remain there until either others take him over, or they don’t play that format for 9-12 months (for ODIs and T20Is) and 12-15 months for Tests.
So, no, this doesn’t mean they have retired from ODIs.
The only possible explanation for the dropping of both Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli from ICC’s Top 100 ICC ODI Batsman rankings is that this could be a technical glitch in ICC’s system, something that they will be looking to rectify soon.
Meanwhile, since both Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli have retired from Tests and T20Is, they have been away from top-level cricket since the end of the IPL.
India’s next ODI series is in Australia in October, where the duo are expected to return to international cricket. India will then host South Africa and New Zealand for multi-formats, including ODIs.
Before all this, they may turn up for some domestic games if the BCCI directs them to.
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