The former Indian captain, Sunil Gavaskar, has dropped a massive statement on the two former captains, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, after the duo failed in the opening ODI of the three-match series against Australia at the Optus Stadium in Perth. He revealed that it would challenging for those two, who haven’t played for six months.

Rohit Sharma and Kohli’s last fixture for the Blue Brigade came during the final of the Champions Trophy 2025 at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium against New Zealand. They played the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 for their respective franchises before taking retirement from the longest format ahead of the England series in the United Kingdom.

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“They were playing on probably the bounciest pitch in Australia. It wasn’t going be easy, especially for players who haven’t played international cricket for a couple of months. It was challenging even for Shubman Gill and Shreyas Iyer, who play regularly.” Sunil Gavaskar expressed as quoted by the India Today.

Sunil Gavaskar expects big scores from Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli in last two ODIs vs Australia

Rohit started well with a single on the very first delivery of the innings before driving Josh Hazlewood for a beautiful straight boundary past the bowler. He, however, looked in good shape with the bat in the small knock before getting an outside edge into the hands of the slip fielder for eight runs.

On the other hand, Kohli failed to open his account in the eight-ball stay. He missed the flashing drive before misjudging the length ball into the hands of the backward point region. The Indian crowd went silent as it was a failure for both batters. Gavaskar, however, reckoned that both could make a fine comeback in the next two games.

“India are still a very good team. Don’t be surprised if Rohit and Kohli score big in the next two games. The more they play, the more time they spend in the nets, the quicker they will find their rhythm. Once they are back among the runs, India’s total will be 300 or 300-plus.” Gavaskar concluded.