Will Rohit Sharma play in the 2027 ODI World Cup?

Rohit Sharma finished his T20I career on a high note after lifting the T20 World Cup by defeating South Africa in the finals by 7 runs at Kingstowne Stadium, ending the Men in Blue title drought after a long wait of 17 years. After winning the match, Rohit announced his retirement from the shorter format of the game with players like Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja to take the game to the next generation and focus on the long long formats. But the point of concern for the Men in Blue is weather Rohit Sharma will be seen playing in the next ICC ODI World Cup in 2027?

Rohit was the second-highest run-scorer in the tournament with 257 runs in 8 games, his match-winning knocks against Australia and England helped Men in Blue to reach the finals of the marquee event. Let's talk about Rohit Sharma's stats as a captain. He is the only Indian Captain after former Indian captain MS Dhoni to lead India into the finals of the ICC events 2 times and emerge victorious on one occasion. So looking at Rohit's performance as a captain in ICC events, the Indian team management and BCCI will be looking forward for Rohit Sharma to lead India in the 2027 ICC ODI World Cup which South Africa will host.

However, Rohit Sharma is 37 years old now and by the next 50 over World Cup, he will be 40. Looking at his fitness at this age it will be really difficult for him to play in 2 long overs format for the Indian cricket team. So we expect him to retire from Test Format after winning the World Test Championship and focus on the 50-overs format, where he has scored 10,709 runs in 263 matches with an average of 49, having 31 centuries to his name. Despite his brilliant records, no Indian cricketer has represented the Indian cricket team at the age of 40, especially in the 50-overs format, the last age at which the Indian cricketer represented Men in Blue in 50 overs format was 38 Former Indian cricketer, Sachin Tendulkar and MS Dhoni in 2011 and 2019 ICC Men's ODI World Cup. So it could be a difficult mountain to climb for the Indian captain at the age of 40.

Meanwhile, Rohit has performed well for the Indian team in the marquee event and led the Indian team to 2 back-to-back finals of ICC events, and in both events, he was the second-highest scorer for the Indian team with the bat. So we can say that for the Indian captain, age is just a number. However, after announcing retirement from the fast format, where fitness matters the most, we can see the 37-year-old cricketer playing one more 50-over World Cup for the Indian team and putting breaks on international cricket on a high note. Nevertheless, the Hitman is 37 years old. If he wants to participate in the next ODI World Cup, he wmustwork on his fitness and play extremely well.

After winning the T20 World Cup 2024, when asked about his future aspirations he said he expressed his desire to secure victory in the upcoming 2027 ODI World Cup.

“I’m still performing at a high level, so I intend to keep playing for a few more years. Winning the 50-over World Cup is a major goal of mine. Additionally, we have the WTC final at Lord’s in 2025, and I’m hopeful that we’ll qualify for that,” he stated.

Rohit's contribution to the Indian national cricket team in the shorter format of the game is speechless whether it's as a captain or as a batter, it will be remembered for a long time in international cricket.