Coach Gambhir, BCCI officials to review India’s Australia tour, discuss Champions Trophy squad

Indian head coach Gautam Gambhir and chief selector Ajit Agarkar will meet with officials of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on January 11 to review the team's recent tour to Australia. 

The meeting will also shed light on the future of leading batters Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma.

The back-to-back series defeats against New Zealand (home) and Australia (away) and the diminishing returns with the bat have put Kohli and Rohit under scanner.

PTI has learned that the authorities will discuss in detail the future plan — whether to activate the transition switch starting from next month’s Champions Trophy or wait for the cycle to end with the ICC marquee event.

Though it’s likely that the senior batters will get another chance to redeem themselves at the ODI Champions Trophy, a format in which they have always excelled.

They may also take into consideration the fact that both Kohli and Rohit have played just three ODIs in 2024 after the 2023 World Cup at home, and that could be too light a sample size to make a final call on their 50-over career.

Both Kohli and Rohit endured different fortunes too in the series against Sri Lanka.

While Kohli amassed 24, 14 and 20 in Colombo, Rohit walked away with scores of 58, 64 and 35 against the Lankans.

But overall, Kohli has been a champion performer in 50-overs, his staple format and a good outing in the Champions Trophy could bring him, and Rohit too, back into a good frame of mind.

However, their Test future is different. The next assignment is an away five-match series against England, and the mandarins will certainly assess the drying runs from Kohli and Rohit in the traditional format.

In the most recent outing against Australia, Kohli, despite a hundred at Perth, could garner only 190 runs at an average of 23.75 while

Rohit, who skipped the first Test and opted out of the fifth match, made 31 runs at 6.2.

Those performances will certainly be mooted thoroughly while seeking Gambhir’s views on their desire to continue playing the longest version of the sport.

The selectors are also expected to discuss and pick the India squad for the five T20Is and three ODIs against England for the home series, beginning from January 22.

There could not be many surprises as the team that did duty in South Africa late last year could be picked up again for the T20Is.