Is Virat Kohli retiring from ODIs? The question wasn’t supposed to echo until after the 2027 World Cup at the very least, but things have unravelled, and then possibly settled, faster than most could fathom on this fateful Australia tour for Virat Kohli. Social media, commentary boxes and group chats were abuzz as Kohli walked off to a standing ovation in Sydney on Saturday after a brilliant unbeaten 74 that reminded everyone why he’s still the heartbeat of India’s ODI side alongside Rohit Sharma, who hit his fifth ODI hundred in Australia.
Following two consecutive ducks earlier in the series and the latest Virat Kohli score today — a fluent unbeaten 74 in a big 168-run stand with Rohit Sharma — the Virat Kohli retirement from ODI talk has suddenly quietened down, at least for now. To his credit, Kohli started off assured, much more in control than he looked at Perth and Adelaide. A top-edged four off Hazlewood aside, he seemed to cover the line of the ball better and rotate strike with the kind of ease that defined his peak years.
There’s something poetic about Sydney. It’s where Virat Kohli played his final Test earlier in January this year before walking away from the red-ball format, and now, it’s also where the whispers of an ODI retirement reached fever pitch, only for Kohli to silence them the way he knows best, with runs and resolve.
Fans were half-hoping to see the old ODI behemoth back in this series after promising starts in the Champions Trophy. And they did. After two rare ducks that had seemed heavier than mere numbers, came an innings of poise and precision, a throwback to the Kohli who turned pressure into poetry.
Earlier in the series, the glaring gaps in his technique had come to the fore as he nicked Mitchell Starc outside off-stump and played all around a Xavier Bartlett delivery seaming in at Adelaide. But in Sydney, he corrected all of it — compact, calm, calculated.
Former Australia captain Greg Chappell summed it up best in his column on ESPNCricinfo:
“Kohli and Rohit’s contribution to ODI cricket wasn’t accidental – it was deeply personal, rooted in identity and belief.”
After retiring from Tests and T20Is, Virat Kohli’s ODI retirement would mark the end of an era that redefined Indian cricket. But is Virat Kohli retiring yet? Will the last match of Virat Kohli truly come anytime soon? Saturday’s knock suggested otherwise. While it’s more or less certain that we won’t see Virat Kohli in Australia again as a player, his ODI future suddenly feels alive again.
Will Virat Kohli play the 2027 ODI World Cup? Is Kohli retiring? Not if Sydney was anything to go by. The emotional wave to the crowd this time wasn’t one of farewell but of relief. Virat Kohli retirement rumours may have peaked mid-series, but after this latest Virat Kohli score today, the conversation has shifted back to his class, not his decline.
Ahead of the Australia tour, chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar had brushed off talk of trials — “It would be silly to put them on trial in every game,” Agarkar said, referring to Kohli and Rohit Sharma. Gautam Gambhir, on the other hand, was more diplomatic. “Look, 50-over World Cup is still two-and-a-half years away, and I think it is very important to stay in the present,” he said, evading the Virat Kohli retirement rumours.
But those two ducks earlier had made the noise impossible to mute, especially as Rohit Sharma silenced critics with a 73 in tough batting conditions in Adelaide. Muted reactions from the dressing room from Virat Kohli after that Adelaide duck had gone viral on social media. There was little doubting that Kohli was breathing through self-doubt then. Each of his tentative strokes spoke more than he needed to.
Now, though, the Sydney innings might just have rewritten that narrative. With the 2027 World Cup still two years away, every game still feels like an unspoken audition — but in Australia, Kohli answered all questions with his bat.
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At his peak, Kohli thrived in chases under pressure. He turned 300-run targets into routines and bowlers into believers of futility. That remains true even now. Because if this was the last match of Virat Kohli in Australia, it served as a reminder that class, not form, defines him.
Is Virat Kohli retiring from ODI cricket? No one truly knows, perhaps not even him at this point of time. Whether the next chapter comes at home or continues toward the 2027 World Cup, the Virat Kohli ODI retirement buzz will only grow louder, but for those who watched him ace another ODI chase, this Sydney knock felt like a reaffirmation, not an ending.
Because as Greg Chappell wrote, “What they gave the game can’t be measured in runs or centuries. They gave it belief, dignity, and character.” And that, perhaps, is the only legacy that never retires.
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