India captain Rohit Sharma unlikely to play in T20Is in near future

India's ODI and Test captain Rohit Sharma is unlikely to play T20 Internationals anymore and had discussed his future in the shortest format before the start of the 50-over World Cup, according to sources in the BCCI.

Rohit hasn't played a single game in the shortest format since India's T20 World Cup semi-final exit in November 2022. Hardik Pandya has mostly led the Indian team in T20Is since then.

The 36-year-old India skipper has played 148 T20Is scoring 3853 runs at a strike-rate of nearly 140 with four hundreds.

''It is not a new development. Rohit hasn't played any T20Is in the past one year as the focus was on the ODI World Cup. He had extensive discussions with the chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar in this regard. He has himself volunteered to stay away from T20Is. It has completely been Rohit's call,'' a senior BCCI source told PTI on



conditions of anonymity.

After Rohit, India have four openers -- Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ishan Kishan and Ruturaj Gaikwad -- and all of them are proven IPL performers. If the younger crop does not perform, the selectors or the BCCI brass might just ask Rohit to reconsider his current stand. It is understandable that at this stage of his career, Rohit would like to manage his workload and ensure that he remains mostly injury free for the remainder of his career.

It will be impossible to play three formats and the IPL each year and with seven Tests to be played between December 2023 to March 2024, the Indian skipper's focus will be mostly on red-ball cricket.

He still has a realistic chance of leading India to another World Test Championship (WTC) final in 2025 and his own form in traditional format has been superb since he started opening for India in 2019.