The future of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma is always up for discussion at the moment, as the former’s excellent fitness has kept him ahead in the race of being part of the Indian team for a long time, while the current captain of One-day International and Test cricket, Rohit has discovered himself in a new fashion.
Both of them were part of the winning squad of the national team as they earned their second title in the T20 World Cup history. Later, they featured in the recent ODI series in Sri Lanka, having taken retirements from the shortest format of the game.
The present challenge for both Rohit and Virat Kohli is to prepare themselves for the upcoming Test series at home against Bangladesh and New Zealand, and later in the five-match series in Australia during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25.
“Virat Kohli will beat 19-year-old on fitness”- Harbhajan Singh
The former off-spinner of the Blue Brigade, Harbhajan Singh, feels that the present Indian captain should continue playing for at least two more years.
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“Rohit can easily play for two more years. You never know with Virat Kohli’s fitness, you can see him competing for five years. He is probably the fittest guy in the team.” The veteran expressed this while in a conversation with news agency PTI.
He also touched on the incredible fitness of Virat Kohli, despite the latter going to be 36 in a few months. Singh believes that the former Indian all-format captain can beat a 19-year-old on fitness.
“You ask any 19-year-old competing with Virat (on fitness). Virat will beat him. He is that fit. I believe Virat and Rohit have a lot of cricket left in them and it is entirely up to them.” The Jalandhar-born remarked. “If they are fit enough, they are performing and the team is winning, they should continue to play. As simple as that.”
India is currently in the sixth position of the third ongoing cycle of the World Test Championship (WTC) 2023-25. The upcoming five games at home will be quite critical for them to stay among the top two to qualify for their third consecutive final of the event, which this time is going to take place in June next year at Lord’s.
Harbhajan has backed both Rohit and Virat Kohli to do well in the Test series and other formats of international cricket, as India will benefit from their experiences. If they go on to struggle with the form, then the selectors will have every right to drop them, according to the spinner.
“Red ball cricket, you need these two guys to play a little bit more than what people are asking. You need experience in all formats whether it’s limited overs cricket and Test cricket.” He highlighted this in the conversation.
“You need experienced cricketers to nurture the talent that is coming up. Selectors need to see that if someone is not performing well, they should be dropped. Whether they are senior player or juniors. But as long as everyone is fit, they should be able to get selected in the team.” Harbhajan Singh continued.
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The 44-year-old also reflected on the 0-2 series defeat in the ODI series in Sri Lanka. He wasn’t much scared of the loss as these things tend to happen in sports.
“It was one of those things. Sometimes you win it, sometimes you lose it. It’s sports, after all. All teams go through these periods. You play well, but you still don’t win. I will give credit to Sri Lanka. They played well. They played better than India.” The Punjab bowler concluded.
