BCCI Vice President Rajeev Shukla has dismissed rumours of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma’s retirement after the upcoming Australia tour.

Having retired from T20Is and Tests, both veterans have now become one-format players. Kohli and Rohit’s last appearance for India was during the Champions Trophy 2025 triumph in March.

The three-match ODI series between India and Australia is slated to get underway on Sunday (October 19) in Perth.

Ahead of the series, speculations are rife about the upcoming ODIs being the last for Kohli and Rohit, who was removed as captain earlier this month. With the 2027 World Cup firmly in sight, the BCCI selectors decided to hand over the leadership reins to young opener Shubman Gill.

However, reports of their retirement have been quashed by Shukla, who mentioned that it's up to the batting stalwarts when they want to step away from international cricket.

"This is very beneficial for us (Rohit and Virat being in the ODI squad). Because both of them are great batsmen, and in the presence of both of them, I think we will be successful in defeating Australia. And as far as this being their last series is concerned, it is nothing like that. We should never go into these things. It is up to the players when they would retire. To say this would be their last series is absolutely wrong," Shukla told ANI.

Following the ODI series, the Men in Blue will face Australia in five T20Is from October 29 to November 8.

India’s T20I squad features a host of IPL stars who have played little-to-no cricket in Australia like Sanju Samson, Rinku Singh, Abhishek Sharma and 22-year-old Tilak Varma, who starred with the bat in the Asia Cup final last month.

India’s ODI squad: Shubman Gill (Captain), Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer (VC), Axar Patel, KL Rahul (WK), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Mohammed Siraj, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Dhruv Jurel (WK), Yashasvi Jaiswal.

India’s T20I squad: Suryakumar Yadav (C), Abhishek Sharma, Shubman Gill (VC), Tilak Varma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Jitesh Sharma (WK), Varun Chakaravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Sanju Samson (WK), Rinku Singh, Washington Sundar.