IND vs SA: Virat Kohli, ODIs and a question of desire, commitment

The BCCI’s judicious edict that players like Rohit and Kohli need to play in domestic cricket if they want to be considered for international cricket hangs as a cloud. The rationale behind it, especially for these two stars, is since they only play ODIs and IPL, the intervening gaps are bound to adversely affect their touch and form. This newspaper reported that Rohit has expressed his availability for domestic cricket to the Mumbai Cricket Association. There is no clarity on Kohli’s availability as yet.

To his fans, it might seem that it’s Kohli who needs clarity from the selectors and management about his future, but it has now come to a stage where he needs to give clarity about his intent. Does he agree with that inherent contention behind that play-domestic-cricket move helping him ward off rustiness? Is he willing to fire up his frequent-flyer miles to keep coming from London to play here in India?

Virat Kohli of India during the 3rd ODI match between Australia and India at Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney, Australia, on October 25, 2025. (CREIMAS for BCCI)

For starters, India’s next ODI series after the South Africa one is in January, against New Zealand. There is the Vijay Hazare Trophy at the end of December. Will he be playing in that, just before the New Year, and likewise, until the next World Cup? It will perhaps come down to how much desire is left in him.

For Rohit, ODIs were his childhood springboard to cricket, and the World Cup triumph remains an unfulfilled dream. Kohli won it in 2011. It was in ODIs as a chase master that Kohli first achieved greatness in international cricket, but subsequently, he also conquered Test cricket–as a batsman and a passionate captain. Overall, none of his contemporary Indian players has achieved what he has in cricket as a batsman, Test captain, and a lodestar of Indian cricket.

In a way, it can be said he doesn’t have a point to prove to himself or to the world. If there was one, it was in Test cricket, where a long fallow run in his end years, caused by a principal weakness to certain deliveries outside off, was left unsolved when he retired. Sachin Tendulkar, Viv Richards, Brian Lara, and some other greats didn’t have any such unsolved nagging flaw in their end days. Kohli did. It came to a state where quality seam-bowling and spin in turn-friendly conditions affected him. But he had such a great run for years that the decline-phase is unlikely to cast too much of a shadow on the overall perception of his Test career. Like with Ricky Ponting, undoubtedly an excellent player but whose record in India against spin was pretty average, Kohli had his flaws. But not many bring those up these days.

Undisputed greatness

But there is not even a whisper or an apparition of a shadow around Kohli’s ODI greatness. No one is perhaps more intimate with its soul, with its pace, and its many quirky twists and turns than Kohli. A Michael Bevan or an MS Dhoni have done some incredible finishing acts, but it’s difficult to recall anyone as good from the top order who has steered, revived, resuscitated, and taken control like Kohli. Match banake phir jitana, as they say.

But this now hangs on his desire. First, he has to keep the runs flowing against South Africa. Then he has to make peace with the domestic cricket requirement. Is there an inner voice inside him that says, just bite the lip and carry on, looking at the bigger picture? Or has he reached a state, with his life, where it seems unnecessary to him? There should be no change in the domestic rule itself, as it makes eminent sense. Else, in a year’s time, if rustiness hits, we shall be hand-wringing over how rationality was forsaken for big names, and Indian cricket would suffer.

The clarity he needs from Indian cricket is that if he continues to perform in ODIs and features in as much domestic cricket as possible, can he play on for India without any need to look behind his shoulder? But he also needs to give clarity to Indian cricket that he is willing to go that extra mile. That he doesn’t see the domestic cricket ruling as a contrived speed bump designed to trip him, but a much-needed boost that will actually help him.

The ODI format itself is seemingly on its last legs, and there is none better than Kohli, the ODI master, and Rohit, ODI’s great lover, to have one final fling with it. One for the road.