Rohit Sharma, who is now having a difficult time at bat, was a member of the Mumbai side prior to the 2024–25 Ranji Trophy season. It was still unclear if he would play in their next games after he was spotted working out in the nets with the home team. However, while holding the press conference to announce India’s Champions Trophy 2025 team, Rohit also disclosed that he would be playing in the forthcoming Ranji match against Jammu and Kashmir.
Following India’s terrible performance in the New Zealand series at home and the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024–25 in Australia, a number of former cricket players criticised the decline in form as a result of not playing local cricket. In their subsequent rules, the BCCI emphasised the importance of playing domestic cricket in order to secure a berth in the national squad.
“I’ll play,” Rohit Sharma declared during the news conference.
The national selection committee head, Ajit Agarkar, went on to say: “It might be challenging at times to be fair to many players if you are playing all three formats. Even though you don’t have as much time, they should definitely play domestic cricket. Probably the majority of the guys are participating in this Ranji Trophy round.
Clearly, the BCCI has proposed it as one of the items. However, we as selectors expect players to play when they are available since that can only make our domestic structure stronger. It can only improve our domestic system, not just for their performance or fitness in cricket,” Ajit Agarkar said.
The last time we saw Rohit representing Mumbai was during a match against Uttar Pradesh for the Ranji Trophy in 2015. For the pivotal match against Jammu and Kashmir, Yashasvi Jaiswal will be available in addition to Rohit. Even before the Ranji Trophy 2024–25 un-pause, Rohit went to the match simulation and faced pacers with his teammate Ajinkya Rahane.
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