Know Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma's fitness status ahead of ODI series against Australia

Just nine weeks before the start of the three-match ODI series against Australia down under, the eyes are on the fitness status of the two veteran Indian players, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma. Both have already taken retirement from the shortest format after the T20 World Cup 2024 and made their shocking Test retirement just a few days before the start of the recently concluded England series.

A few days ago, the current 50-over captain of the Blue Brigade, Rohit Sharma, turned to the Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Bengaluru with Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj. By the end of this month, the other experienced members of the side, who are not part of the Asia Cup 2025 squad, including KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, Akash Deep, Ravindra Jadeja, and Nitish Reddy, are also expected to complete their tests.

However, in a rare move, the former captain, Virat Kohli, has reportedly completed his fitness assessment in England, making him the only Indian player to undergo testing abroad. He is with his family in London and was permitted to complete his fitness test under the supervision of the BCCI.

Virat Kohli completes fitness assessment under BCCI’s supervision in London

The team of the BCCI physiotherapists and strength and conditioning coaches has already submitted individual fitness reports to the board. The report adds that the senior official of the board didn’t directly address the deviation from the procedure, but confirmed that Kohli would have taken approval for conducting the test overseas.

In the second phase of September, it will include the players returning from the rehab or the RTP, including Rahul, Deep, Jadeja, and Pant, along with all those who missed the first-phase assessments due to injury or illness.

Rohit Sharma, Mohammed Siraj, Shubman Gill, Jitesh Sharma, Prasidh Krishna, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Abhishek Sharma, Harshit Rana, Shreyas Iyer, Rinku Singh, Axar Patel, Rajat Patidar, Ravi Bishnoi, Sanju Samson, Shivam Dube, Mohammed Shami, Varun Chakravarthy, Mukesh Kumar, Hardik Pandya, and others have tested the recovery patterns and basic strength. Most of these players met the fitness parameter successfully with a few completed particle tests.