Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma stole the show in India’s 2-1 ODI series victory over South Africa at home. Both batting stalwarts only play the ODI format now, having retired from T20Is and Tests.
Kohli earned the Player-of-the-Series accolade for his 302 runs in the three-match series, including two hundreds (135 and 102) and a half-century (65*). On the other hand, Rohit finished the series with 57, 14 and 75.
While the veteran duo silenced the critics, India head coach Gautam Gambhir indicated that there was no need to read too much into their performances with regard to the next ODI World Cup, still two years away.
“They are world-class players and their experience is important in the dressing room. They’ve been doing it for a long time. Hopefully, they can continue doing the same, which is going to be important in the 50-over format,” Gambhir told reporters after India’s nine-wicket win over South Africa in the series-decider at Vizag.
Gambhir stressed that Yashasvi Jaiswal and Ruturaj Gaikwad will be given opportunities wherever possible, even after the return of regular skipper Shubman Gill and vice-captain Shreyas Iyer to the ODI squad.
In the series dominated by Kohli and Rohit, Jaiswal and Gaikwad also left a mark with three-figure scores.
When pressed about where the two senior pros stood in terms of the 2027 World Cup, Gambhir replied, “First you got to realise that the ODI World Cup is two years away. It’s important to stay in the present, and that young boys coming into the set-up grab their opportunities.”
“Someone like Rutu (Gaikwad) has batted out of position, but he’s a quality player. We wanted to give him an opportunity in this series, because of the kind of form he was in with India A. And he grabbed that opportunity with both hands when we were under pressure. Getting that kind of a 100 was proper quality. And Yashasvi as well, we’ve seen how much quality he has, especially in Test cricket. It’s just the start of his career, especially in white-ball cricket. Hopefully he has a massive future ahead and so does Rutu,” he added.
Jaiswal and Gaikwad played in place of Gill and Shreyas in the South Africa series, but Gambhir said it is important to give them opportunities keeping a sight on the World Cup.
“Try and give them opportunities wherever we can, because we want a reasonable group of players – probably around 20-25 – before the World Cup. So whenever we are able to give them opportunities, we’ll do that. But once your captain and vice-captain are back, obviously they are your starters. They (Gaikwad and Jaiswal) should be ready whenever they get that opportunity,” Gambhir remarked.
During the press conference, the coach also reacted to widespread backlash over India’s 0-2 whitewash in the Test series against South Africa.
“People said things that have nothing to do with cricket. An IPL team owner also wrote about split coaching. It’s important for people to stay in their domain. Because if we don’t go into someone’s domain, they also don’t have the right to come into our domain,” Gambhir said.
India and South Africa will now square off in a five-match T20I series, starting on Tuesday (December 9) in Cuttack.
