Former India head coach Ravi Shastri believes star players like Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli will be forced to quit one format of the game as there is too much cricket.

The hectic cricketing calendar has come to the spotlight after Ben Stokes' retirement from ODIs. The England all-rounder called time on his 50-over career last year, citing that playing all three formats amid a busy schedule is "unsustainable" for him.

Speaking to Sports Today, Shastri said giving up one format would be the case not just with Rohit and Kohli but with a lot of players in the near future.

"I think not just with Virat and Rohit. It will be the case with a lot of players. There's too much cricket. The volume of cricket is so much,” he stated.

“For all you know, India might be playing a Test series somewhere, but a T20 tournament might be going on somewhere else with an Indian team. Many times when I was a coach, we were in one country, India was in another country playing Sri Lanka or someone proper. So it is going to happen. You will have to see what is important that year, and accordingly, get the players primarily focused in playing those games," Shastri added.

According to the former coach, it would be important to focus on the format that would need emphasis that year.

"So, if there is a World Cup coming of 50-over cricket coming, emphasis must be on 50-over cricket. If the emphasis on T20s, then decide who your nucleus of 15-18 players are," said Shastri.