Cricket Opera: The Rohit Sharma Googly!

Rohit Sharma has been emerging as a paradox of Indian cricket, as much for the uncertainty about his place in the playing eleven as for his sort of a plunge into the television show business. This paradox is not less significant than the celebrated googly. The rollercoaster ads on his debut appearance as a host in Sony Entertainment Television’s new show Family Full House With Rohit Sharma put this innocent writer in grievous doubt about his future in the ODI cricket only which he’s been playing after retiring from Test and T20 cricket. Has the national selector Ajit Agarkar finally decided to shelve the superlative cricketer from Team India, so as to exclude him from the Indian squad being prepared for the World Cup-2027? However, the selector’s final decision to include him in the upcoming ODI Series against the visiting West Indies has indeed assured this writer as far as his place in Team India is concerned, but put him in great confusion as his host-show was launched on 19^th September, almost simultaneously. The confusion stems naturally from the fact that many cricketers start doing off-field assignments once s/he retires from all forms of the game—some becoming commentators and others doing shows. For example, Sourav Ganguly has been hosting shows on the Bangla TV channels for years now. Therefore, how is the Hitman going to adjust between the two commitments, apart from all the brand ad campaigns?

No doubt, the handsome guy Rohit has a pleasant screen presence which has been apparent in all the storyline ads he’s been doing, particularly after his spectacular performance as a captain of Team India, leading his unbeaten team to the Final of the World Cup-2023 and nearly winning it. The Hitman never took it very seriously to heart and led his team to glory in the ICC T20 World Cup in the very next year and the ICC Champions Trophy in 2025. Unfortunately, his indifferent performances in the subsequent Tests and ODIs raised questions about his fitness and form with his age picking up and the World Cup-2027 looming large. But of course, owing to the veteran’s huge contribution to the game and his valuable experience, the selectors continued to keep him in the ODI team as well as Virat Kohli. In the recent ODI Series against England the Hitman proved his special abilities that perhaps convinced Agarkar to stick with him.

Anyway, we stick to his screen presence for the moment. During the ICC T20 World Cup-2026 the lovable presence of the Hitman had always been with Team India and the fans, with the unending airing of the ‘repeat history, defeat history’ ad campaign. His virtual presence might have enthused Surya Kumar Yadav to go on fighting it out and finally to lead team to the title, and then leaving the Trophy in Pakistan custody! Per the two episodes of the new show already telecast the fans and the audiences have apparently lapped Rohit up as a good host too, lauding his comic timing as well as hi overall dialogue delivery. In those two episodes he’s also handled the usual stars of show business as efficiently as his teammates on the field.

But questions about the likely conflict of commitments remain. Rohit Sharma has reportedly made out a disciplined strategy to honour both the commitments—devoting every morning to physical fitness and all-round cricket practice including strenuous net sessions and then spending rest of the day on shooting/production schedules. But how is he going to do justice to both the sectors with his new episodes to telecast on 26 and 27 September and the first ODI against the West Indies coming up on 27^th September, 2026? If reports are to be believed he’s finished shooting many episodes in advance during the August-September break so that no new episode needs to be on the floor till the West Indies Series is over.

But then, the current cricket season is packed with quite a few ODI series, apart from the other formats, leading up to the World Cup, and therefore, cricket practice/training/nets is going to have to clash with the shoot/production schedules during the coming year. This makes it somewhat risky for the BCCI to stick with him for the World Cup. Even if he’s made himself fully free for the cricket sessions, the distractions about his screen antics are definitely going to play in his mind, possibly affecting his cricketing plays, particularly batting. Sticking with MS Dhoni for the World Cup-2019 had misfired very badly, and we just cannot take another risk with Rohit who is crossing 39 in 2027. This also raises one more concern. In the recent many matches we’d seen Rohit sitting in the pavilion for not being included in the playing eleven. This is always a sorry sight, a player of his quality there but not playing and sitting it idly out. We fear more of such scenarios in the near future with both Ruturaj Gaikwad and Yashasvi Jaiswal included in the India squad.  

Millions of fans would definitely not like to see their beloved Hitman just sit out there without any action on the field. The IPL rule of the Impact Player is not there in ICC cricket, and so, if Rohit is not included in the playing eleven he cannot do anything on the field. Finally, along with his fans, we’d also like to see his giving his full commitment to cricket, at least till the ICC Men’s World Cup-2027. The googly has to be played deftly. Now!