There has been a wave of speculation surrounding the future of Indian veterans Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli in India's plans for the 2027 ODI World Cup. Both the stars have retired from Test and T20I cricket, keeping themselves available in only ODIs. Recently, the duo were seen in India's three-match ODI series against England, where they demonstrated their worth by playing noteworthy knocks. 

In the final ODI, which India lost by 27 runs after failing to chase a target of 388, Rohit Sharma smacked 138 while Kohli registered 74 runs. But what caught the most attention ahead of the final were the reports claiming that the third match could be the final outing for Rohit in international cricket. 

However, the experienced batter responded nicely by playing a blistering knock. Meanwhile, sharing his views on the constant chatter, former India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin said that no one can touch the senior duo of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli if they want to play. 

“They cannot touch both Virat and Rohit if they want to play. because they have the credentials. Rohit has scored almost 12,000 runs; they cannot touch him. Secondly, they are both batters, and they cannot touch them. If they touch them, if you look at the news of Rohit's potential retirement, it was not outside noise. If there's no fire, there would be no smoke,” said Ashwin on his YouTube channel ‘Ash Ki Baat’.

“There was fire, but Rohit scored runs, and he has shown how it's done. Rohit has no doubt about playing in the World Cup. The point is they cannot touch both Rohit and Virat because they are batters. They have an army and a battalion. People come to watch them. If you drop them, it will break the roof down,” he said.

Ashwin further said that there will be no uproar when bowlers are dropped, but dropping Rohit and Kohli will be difficult. 

"If Shami, Siraj or Bhuvneshwar, only 10 people will raise questions. 100 or 1000 people will ask. Okay, let's think a maximum of 10,000 people will ask questions, but there would be no noise. That's the point. If there comes a day when people raise their voice for the bowlers, then dropping them would also become difficult,” said Ashwin.