Cricket veteran Ravichandran Ashwin has voiced his candid thoughts on the ongoing speculation regarding the future of star players Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, emphasizing the crucial need for improved communication from the team management. With both players having already retired from T20Is and Tests, and the next major ODI tournament—the 2027 World Cup—still years away, questions naturally persist about their continued involvement in the ODI format.
Ashwin openly acknowledged that both Kohli and Rohit are now in the latter stages of their illustrious careers. “You like it or not, they are at the back-end of their careers,” Ashwin stated on his YouTube channel. However, he strongly believes that the approach to managing players nearing retirement should be handled with far greater sensitivity and transparency. He criticized the common tendency among fans and organizations to hastily dismiss veterans as “old” and call for their retirement, often influenced by the emergence of young talent performing well in leagues like the IPL.
The seasoned spinner highlighted a critical oversight in this process: the lack of solid communication and proper knowledge transfer from the management to the players. Ashwin urged that discussions with Rohit and Kohli about their roles and the team`s future direction should have commenced much earlier, ideally right after their T20 World Cup retirement announcement in 2024.
“If the conversation has happened now, why did it not happen after they said they were retiring after the 2024 T20 World Cup? It could have happened then itself,” Ashwin remarked. He warned that insufficient and unclear communication creates an “uninformed space,” which inevitably leads to rampant speculation and leaves highly respected players in a vulnerable and uncertain position. Given the immense contributions of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma to Indian cricket, Ashwin stressed that transparent dialogue is absolutely crucial, not just for them, but for fostering a healthy and respectful environment across the entire cricketing setup.
