Amid Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma Saga, Ajit Agarkar Gets "Messy End" Warning

BCCI chief selector Ajit Agarkar is in the hot seat. Since he took over the top post in July 2023, Indian cricket has seen many big decisions. There have been high-profile retirements of Ravichandran Ashwin, Virat Kohli, and Rohit Sharma; the last two players retired from Tests and T20Is. Now, Rohit Sharma has been removed from ODI captaincy too. While the Agarkar-led selection committee picked both Rohit and Kohli for the ODI series against Australia starting October 19, speculation is rife that they might retire soon. Former England pacer Steve Harmison, a veteran of 63 Tests, 58 ODIs, and two T20Is, feels Agarkar will be under pressure. He added that it will be interesting to see if Agarkar's staement that every player needs to play domestic was a way of firing up the star duo. 

"Unfortunately, I think there might be a messy end for Ajit Agarkar there. If anybody is going to win here, I think it is the former captains rather than the former all-rounder. But it all depends on, if Agarkar is saying this just to fuel the fire of Kohli and Sharma, then fair enough. You put your cards on the table and see what comes," he said on talkSPORT Cricket.

Harmison opined that Kohli is in a slightly better position than Rohit.

"I think Kohli has got a little bit of skin in the game. Runs in the bank, his reputation. Sharma, not as much. Sharma's a little bit older. He's not been as influential in 50-over cricket as Virat has. If Virat turns around and says, 'All right, you go to the 50-over World Cup without me and leading up to it, let's see when you're chasing 350 in 50 overs to win against Australia or England, and you haven't got that bloke who averages 90 winning games at number four, see where your team's at.' There could be a messy end in that way. There could also be words that have been misunderstood in translation," he added.

The former England pacer added that Agarkar must put it across to Kohli and Rohit that playing domestic cricket is essential if they want to prolong their international career.

"He might just have said I want them to play because they are not going to be playing. That's the problem. They're not playing Test cricket, they're not playing T20 cricket. They're only going to play the IPL. And if 50-over cricket is at the back end of the year, not when the IPL is, we could do with them playing a couple of domestic games. That could possibly be the way it was put across by Agarkar and it has been blown out of proportion," he said.

Topics mentioned in this article

India Cricket Team Rohit Sharma Virat Kohli BCCI Ajit Agarkar Cricket