Batting stalwarts Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli are set to make their international returns as part of India's ODI squad for the upcoming three-match series against Australia. The Board of Control for Cricket in India BCCI announced the squad on Saturday October 4, with both batters to play an international game after nearly eight months.
The ODI series will begin on October 19 in Perth, followed by matches in Adelaide October 23 and Sydney October 25. It will be the first time Rohit and Kohli take the field for India since the Champions Trophy victory earlier this year, where the Men in Blue lifted the silverware after defeating New Zealand in the final. Neither of the players has played a competitive game since the end of IPL 2025 in June.
Notably, the duo will only feature in ODI cricket as they retired from T20Is after guiding India to the 2024 T20 World Cup title and announced their shock retirements from Test cricket earlier this May. Rohit, who captained the Test team, stepped away just before India's England tour, while Kohli exited a week later, only 770 runs short of the 10,000-run milestone in Tests. Both players are expected to continue playing in this format until at least the 2027 World Cup in South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Namibia.