Should Rohit Sharma Retire From ODIs After Champions Trophy 2025 Win? Ricky Ponting Says This
Indian cricket team recently won the Champions Trophy 2025 title under Rohit Sharma’s captaincy. Rohit, who was appointed as India’s captain back in 2021, has now won two ICC titles – Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 and Champions Trophy 2025.
Before the Champions Trophy 2025 final against New Zealand, there were talks around the Indian skipper’s retirement from the ODI format, however, Rohit quashed them in the press conference following the title win.
“One more thing. I’m not going to retire from this format, just to make sure that no rumours are spread moving forward…” Rohit told reporters after India’s Champions Trophy triumph in Dubai on Sunday night.
Speaking on the latest episode of The ICC Review, former Australia skipper Ponting stated that Rohit is likely to have had a specific goal in mind when he made the announcement about not retiring from ODI cricket.
“When you start getting to that point of your career, everyone’s waiting for you to retire,” Ponting said.
And I don’t know why, when you can still play as well as he’s played (in the final), I think he was just trying to put those questions to bed once and for all and say, ‘no, I’m still playing well enough. I love playing in this team. I love leading this team.’
And I think, the fact that he said that, to me, it means that he must have that goal in mind of playing in the next (50-over) World Cup (in 2027),” he added.
India hosted the 2023 ODI World Cup and had an exceptional run under Rohit’s leadership. However, the side fell at the final stage, having been dealt a six-wicket defeat at the hands of the Pat Cummins-led Australia in the summit clash.
The 50-year-old believes that a sense of unfinished business may have to do with Rohit’s decision to stay in-charge until the 2027 ODI World Cup, which will be held in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia.
“I think probably the fact that they lost the last one and he was captain, that might be the thing that’s playing on the back of his mind,” Ponting noted.
“Just have one more crack at trying to win the T20 World Cup, the Champions Trophy, and the ODI World Cup. I mean when you see him play like he played in the Champions Trophy final, you wouldn’t say that his time is up just yet,” he added.
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