Won’t be easy for Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma to play 2027 World Cup, says Sourav Ganguly 

When asked if he had any word of advice for the top players, Ganguly said, "I have got no advice. I think they know the game as much I do. They will take a call."

Kolkata: It won’t be easy for Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma to remain fit and find a place in India’s ODI World Cup squad in 2027, former captain Sourav Ganguly says. “All of us must understand, just like everyone, the game will go away from them and they will go away from the game,” Ganguly said in a lengthy interview at his residence.

The next ODI World Cup is scheduled in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia and by the time the prestigious ICC event is played Kohli will be 38 years old and Rohit will touch 40. Till then India have 27 ODIs to play spread across nine bilateral series. That means Kohli and Rohit will hardly get 15 international games a year.

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“It won’t be easy, with 15 games a year,” Ganguly said. With 25,000 runs and 83 international hundreds between them, both Kohli and Rohit have expressed their desire to play the 50-over global event after recently retiring from Test cricket. Ganguly, an exceptional ODI batter during his career, was asked if he had any word of advice for them. “I have got no advice. I think they know the game as much I do. They will take a call.”

Ganguly acknowledged that finding a player of the caliber of Kohli to replace him won’t be easy, though he is not worried about Indian cricket after the retirement of the two stalwarts. “I was not concerned at all. Virat is a class player. Finding his replacement will take time. But the rest, I wasn’t surprised.”

Talking about Yuvraj Singh, Ganguly said he was a special player who flourished in white-ball formats but did not get enough chances to touch his real potential in traditional format. “I remember seeing Yuvraj for the first tine in Nairobi and saw that he is special. What he went on to do for India after that in one-day cricket is unreal. He was 2007 World T20 player player of the series, 2011 World Cup, player of the series, runs, wickets fielding, he was special.

“Unfortunately he did not get many opportunities in Test matches. He played about 30 odd Test matches, he got stuck between Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Ganguly and VVS Laxman, but a special player,” he said.