Rumours of Rohit Sharma's retirement from international cricket grabbed majority of the headlines during India's recently concluded ODI series against England.
Several media reports had claimed that the Indian team management had decided to look past the veteran batter as it is in search of a youngster in the buildup for the 2027 ODI World Cup. These speculations were firmly denied by the BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia.
The former Indian captain, who was dismissed on the scores of 11 and 26 in the first two matches of the series, bounced back to form and struck a memorable hundred at Lord's albeit in a losing cause.
After the hundred, Rohit broke his silence on the developments, saying he has learned to ignore the "outside noise" throughout his career.
Former India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has weighed in on the speculation surrounding his former teammate. Ashwin said he does not believe the retirement rumours were merely "outside noise", suggesting there was more to the speculation than met the eye.
"See, when the news of Rohit Sharma's potential retirement broke. Okay, you call it outside noise. I won't call it that. There is a saying in Tamil: 'There is no smoke without fire'. There was fire, but he scored runs. He showed he can do it. In his mind, I don't think there is any doubt that he can play the 2027 World Cup," Ashwin said on his YouTube channel.
Ashwin believes that nothing can stop Rohit from playing the next year's ODI World Cup except for fitness.
"I feel that this is Rohit's road to a comeback after an injury. If he were in a slightly better state or were more confident, he could have scored 180 and won the match for the team. I felt like Rohit was in really good form," he explained.
The 39-year-old also added that the BCCI cannot sideline either Rohit or Virat Kohli considering the duo's immense contribution to Indian cricket. He said that if the two players are overlooked, then it would result in a strong backlash from their ardent supporters.
"They cannot touch Virat and Rohit if they want to play. It is because of their credentials. Rohit has scored almost 12,000 runs; they cannot touch him. The other thing is that they are batters, and if you touch them, they have an army. People come to see them. If you drop them, it will just bring the roof down," said Ashwin.
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