(Image source from: Thecricketlounge.com)
India's One Day International captain Rohit Sharma is ready to come back to international cricket for the ODI series in Australia later this year after successfully passing the pre-season fitness evaluation at the BCCI Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru on Sunday. Rohit has not played since the IPL 2025 season. During the Mumbai Indians' IPL season earlier this summer, he announced he would retire from Test cricket. This announcement came just two weeks before the selection meeting for the England tour and after months of speculation regarding his international cricket career. While the BCCI confirmed in a social media message following his Test retirement that he would continue as the ODI captain, doubts about his status in this format arose again in August, after India's Test series in England concluded. A media article even hinted that he might step away from 50-over games following the ODI series in Australia in October, with the BCCI likely encouraging his domestic involvement to keep him in consideration for the 2027 ODI World Cup.
Although he has not yet addressed the speculations, Rohit has successfully completed the required fitness Test, as mentioned in a PTI report. After stepping back from both Test and T20I formats, Rohit currently has no immediate games scheduled but might tour Australia for an ODI series in October. To get ready for this tour, he is expected to play for India A against Australia A in three one-day matches in Kanpur on September 30, October 3, and 5. However, the Indian captain will continue to await confirmation for the selection to the tour. The report indicated that Rohit will likely stay in the city for a few additional days to train at the Centre of Excellence. Shubman Gill, the Test captain for India, also passed the fitness evaluation ahead of the Asia Cup where he has been named vice captain. The 25-year-old previously withdrew from the Duleep Trophy, where he was set to be the North Zone captain, due to illness and had been resting in his hometown for a few days. His teammates, Jasprit Bumrah and wicketkeeper Jitesh Sharma, who are also part of the Asia Cup team, passed their fitness tests.
In addition to the usual Yo-Yo Test, a DXA Scan, a simpler bone density test, was included in the fitness assessment. The PTI report noted that Mohammed Siraj, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Washington Sundar, and Shardul Thakur also passed the fitness evaluation at the Centre of Excellence without any issues. Jaiswal and Sundar are on the standby list for the continental tournament starting on September 9 in the UAE, while Thakur will remain in Bengaluru to lead the West Zone in the Duleep Trophy semifinal against the Central Zone beginning September 4. Other members of the Asia Cup team, including Arshdeep Singh, Harshit Rana, Kuldeep Yadav, and standby Riyan Parag, who participated in the Duleep Trophy quarterfinals for their respective regional teams, also passed their fitness evaluations.
