Yograj Singh urges Indian ODI captain to play for five more years: ‘Rohit will be my man…'

Indian Express

10 hours ago

Former Indian player Yograj Singh has slammed Rohit Sharma's critics and also said the Indian ODI skipper needs to play for another five years for India. The 38-year-old has announced his retirement from the T20I and Tests already.
'The man about whom so many people speak rubbish, Rohit Sharma – I said that day that Rohit will be my man, the man, my man,' Yograj told News18 CricketNext.
'The way he batted, his batting one side and the rest of the team's batting on the other side. His innings on one side and the rest of the world on the other. That's his class. You can say, 'Rohit, aapki hume 5 saal aur zarurat hai yaar' (Rohit, we need you for five more years, man) so please do more for your country, work on your fitness and everything. Put four men on him, make him run 10 kilometres every morning. He has the class to play till 45 years of age, if he wants,' he added.
'I believe you should play domestic cricket; the more you play that, the fitter you'll be. Who got the Man of the Match in the final? Rohit Sharma. So you should only talk about things that you know. If you want to talk about his game and fitness, do that only if you have played at some level. Do you feel ashamed for talking like this?' Yograj said.
Sunil Gavaskar, in one of his columns, mentioned how after 30s, cricketers' memory muscle starts to wane. He, in the same piece at the time, would write about the importance of Kohli and Rohit playing the Duleep Trophy ahead of the home Test series against Bangladesh and New Zealand. However, both players opted out back then. Fast forward to the present, things have changed; both players have retired from both T20Is and Tests but remain part of ODIs. With a limited number of 50-over games available for the players to play, the debate over whether Rohit and Kohli should play the Vijay Hazare trophy has heated up. Giving his view, former Indian cricketer Aakash Chopra said it is 'bogus talk.'
'The chatter about playing the Vijay Hazare Trophy — the tournament will happen in November–December. What's the point? There are nine ODIs for India till the next IPL (3 vs Australia in October, 3 vs South Africa in November, and 3 against New Zealand in January 2026). That's about it — just nine days of cricket action for you. That would be over 100 days since you played an IPL match and the next ODI you play. You're not playing at all. You're not practising,' Aakash Chopra said on his YouTube channel.
'A three-match series gets over in seven to eight days. Then the next one would be after three months. Gaps are just incredibly huge, and you won't play first-class cricket in between. It's true that had they continued playing Test cricket and left ODIs, staying in the groove would have been a lot easier,' Chopra added.
'Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli don't have to play the Vijay Hazare Trophy — they wouldn't be selected based on their performance in the tournament, let's be honest about this. It's bogus talk. If they had played Tests and left ODIs, staying in the groove would have been easier,' Chopra opined.