India ODI captain Rohit Sharma is all set to return to international cricket for the ODI tour of Australia later this year after he aced the pre-season fitness test at the BCCI Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru on Sunday. Rohit has not been in action since the IPL 2025 season.
Midway through the season for the Mumbai Indians in the IPL earlier this summer, Rohit announced his retirement from Test cricket. The development came just two weeks before the selection meeting for the tour of England, and amid months of immense speculation over his future in international cricket.
Although the BCCI confirmed in their social media post for Rohit at the time of his Test retirement that he would remain the ODI skipper, questions over his position in the format resurfaced in August, after the end of India’s Test series in England. In fact, a media report even hinted that he might retire from 50-over cricket after the Australia ODI tour in October, with the BCCI likely to stress his domestic participation to keep him relevant for selection for the ODI World Cup in 2027.
Although he has yet to address the rumours, Rohit cleared the mandatory fitness Test, according to a report in the PTI. While Rohit has no immediate assignments after his retirement from Test and T20Is, the senior opener could travel to Australia for an ODI series in October. In preparation for the tour, he will likely appear for India A against Australia A in three one-day matches at Kanpur on September 30, October 3 and 5.
However, the India captain will continue to wait for confirmation of the selection for the tour. The report added, “Rohit is likely to stay back in the city for a few more days to train at the CoE.”
Gill, Bumrah clear fitness test ahead of Asia Cup
India Test captain Shubman Gill also cleared the fitness test ahead of the Asia Cup, for which he was named vice captain. The 25-year-old had earlier pulled out of the Duleep Trophy, where he was named the North Zone captain, because of a fever, and was resting at his home town for the last few days. Teammates Jasprit Bumrah, and wicketkeeper-batter Jitesh Sharma, who are also part of the Asia Cup squad, passed the fitness parameters.
Apart from the now-standard Yo-Yo test, a DXA Scan, a simplified method to test bone density, was also done during the fitness test.
The PTI report added that Mohammed Siraj, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Washington Sundar, and Shardul Thakur also passed the test at the CoE without any alarm. Jaiswal and Sundar are on the standby list for the continental tournament, which begins on September 9 in the UAE, while Thakur will remain in Bengaluru to lead the West Zone in the Duleep Trophy semifinal against the Central Zone from September 4.
Other members of the Asia Cup squad – Arshdeep Singh, Harshit Rana, Kuldeep Yadav and Riyan Parag (standby), who were all part of the Duleep Trophy quarterfinals for their respective Zonal teams, will likely appear in a separate fitness test.
