Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli sweated it out in the nets ahead of the first ODI of the three-match series at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium, Nagpur, on Wednesday.
Rohit, continuing to use his aggressive approach at the 2023 ODI World Cup, kept up the attack. Kohli, on the other hand, appeared to do it with class with some beautifully executed drives.
The BCCI Twitter account had a video of Kohli and Rohit batting in the nets, saying: “Gearing up for the #INDvENG ODI series opener.. ..in Ro-Ko style.”
📍 Nagpur
— BCCI (@BCCI) February 5, 2025
Gearing up for the #INDvENG ODI series opener..
..in Ro-Ko style 😎#TeamIndia | @IDFCFIRSTBank | @ImRo45 | @imVkohli pic.twitter.com/gR2An4tTk0
Final-overs specialists Kohli and Rohit left behind all they have done before and put on their ODI shoes, with England now in sight.
Rohit and Kohli remain two of the three still surviving members of India’s triumphant Champions Trophy side that won the final against England at Edgbaston in 2013. The two veterans of the current batting lineup of India are a little shaky in their current form.
During India’s tour of Australia and returning to India, the duos did not find themselves in the long format of the game and could not get back to scoring runs at the domestic level either.
The two veterans had a rough time at Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25, where India lost 3-1. Rohit scored 31 runs in five innings and Kohli had 190 runs in nine innings.
Both players are coming back to domestic cricket after their barren series in an attempt to regain form for the big tournament. But it has not turned out well. Rohit scored 3 and 28 against J& K with a return, while Kohli fell for 6 and was blown away for 6 by Railways against Delhi.
India recently outclassed England in their five-match T20I series 2025 4-1 but the senior duo of Rohit and Kohli were not part of the squad having retired from the format on the international stage following the triumphant 2024 T20 World Cup.
India’s updated squad for the England series
Rohit Sharma (captain), Ꮪhubman Gill (vice-captain), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Rishabh Pant (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Mohd. Shami, Arshdeep Singh, Varun Chakaravarthy
