BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia has dismissed the speculation that the Lord's ODI between England and India on Sunday could be Rohit Sharma's last international match.
"There are lot of speculations going on in media about Rohit Sharma's future. I want to firmly assert that there has been no such discussion that Rohit will be playing his last match at Lord's on Sunday," Saikia told PTI. "Rohit is a regular member of the Indian ODI team and he will continue to represent the country as long as he is in the scheme of things. In other words, Lord's ODI wont be his last match."
The talk about Rohit's retirement escalated on Thursday midway through the second ODI in Cardiff, where he made 26 off 47. Rohit had looked unsettled even in the first ODI at Edgbaston, where he was dismissed for 11 off 21. However, India's batting coach Sitanshu Kotak said after the defeat in Cardiff that Rohit was not under any pressure and he remained confident the veteran batter would showcase a "completely different innings" at Lord's.
Cricinfo had learned the selectors had spoken to Rohit, 39, before the ODI series in England that they would be providing opportunities to younger openers going forward with an eye on the 2027 ODI World Cup in Africa. It is understood that India's selectors had started conversations about Rohit's future during IPL 2026 and these discussions involved head coach Gautam Gambhir.
Rohit had already become the oldest male cricketer to play an ODI for his country, surpassing Mohinder Amarnath during the Dharamsala fixture against Afghanistan in June. He made scores of 16, 48 and 79 in that three-match series. His position in the team had attracted scrutiny in almost every bilateral series he has played since the Ajit Agarkar-led selection panel replaced him with Gill as India's ODI captain in October 2025, months after Rohit had led India to the Champions Trophy title in March.
ODI cricket is the only format Rohit has played for India over the last 12 months, having retired from T20Is after leading his team to the 2024 T20 World Cup title and from Test cricket in May 2025. It is the format he was most successful in too: Rohit is currently the seventh-highest run-scorer in the format with 11,757 runs at an average of 48.58. He holds the record for the highest individual score in the format too - 264 - and is the only batter with three double-centuries in ODIs. He's third on the list of most ODI hundreds, behind Virat Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar, and five of his 33 centuries came during India's 2019 ODI World Cup campaign - a tournament record.