They say it’s over for Rohit Sharma. But is it? writes Jasriman Kaur

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Rohit has been written off more than once. Then he has gone back to doing what Rohit does best: Batting

Chandigarh, October 1

“The thought will never cross my mind that the business I had is finished.”

Rohit Sharma said this recently while talking about his ODI future.

On Wednesday, he seemed to underline those words with his bat.

A 101 against the West Indies. His 35th ODI century. His 12,000th ODI run. And an innings that came while India were chasing 406.

At 39, Rohit walked out and did what he has done so many times before, i.e., made batting look almost ridiculously easy.

And suddenly, the question we have been asking for months sounded a little premature.

Is it really over for Rohit Sharma?

I have watched Rohit for years and perhaps, that is why I find this whole conversation a little strange. We don’t just talk about his runs anymore. We talk about his age, his retirement, his future and who will replace him.

And then he bats.

After the England ODIs, when questions about his future were again doing the rounds, he walked into Lord’s and scored 138. His response to the noise was typically Rohit: “My job is with the bat.”

And then, with that trademark dry humour, he added: “If there is no noise, there is no fun.”

That is Rohit, isn’t it?

Even when he is being serious, there is usually a little bit of Rohit in it.

The same man whose stump-mic banter has given us the now-famous “garden mein ghoomne wale log” line. The same Captain who told Sarfaraz Khan “hero nahi banne ka” during a Test match. There is something wonderfully unfiltered about him. He can be India’s Captain one moment and sound like the older brother in the dressing room the next.

Maybe that is also why I find it difficult to write him off.

Because look at what happened yesterday. Rohit became only the third Indian after Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli to cross 12,000 ODI runs. Then came the 35th hundred.

This is also the man who scored 264, still the highest individual score in ODI cricket, the only batter with three ODI double-centuries and five 100s at the 2019 World Cup.

These are not just numbers, but reminders of the player we are so casually asking to move on.

And yesterday, he was not playing like a man looking backwards. He and Indian skipper Shubman Gill put together 255 for the first wicket in a chase of 406. Gill went on to score an unbeaten double century as India completed the chase with eight wickets to spare.

Gill is the future. He is India’s Captain now. But may be the future does not have to arrive by pushing the present out of the door.

Rohit is 39. He has retired from Tests and T20Is. Questions about his place in the 2027 World Cup are fair. But one 100 cannot decide that. Just as one poor series should not decide it.

For me, the interesting part is that Rohit doesn’t seem obsessed with the ending either.

“As long as you’re playing, there is always something to look forward to,” he had said, while making it clear that he is looking towards the 2027 World Cup.

And perhaps there is something else about Rohit that we sometimes forget.

He isn’t just the player who became “Mumbai cha Raja” in the IPL. He instead became “India cha Raja” in the hearts of millions who grew up watching those effortless sixes, those big hundreds and, yes, those hilarious stump-mic moments.

That is why his story feels bigger than a selection debate.

For me, the question isn’t whether Rohit deserves a place because of what he has done in the past. It is whether, when he is still producing innings like Wednesday’s, we are too eager to decide what his future should look like.

Let the selectors decide when they have to. Let the performances speak. Let Rohit do what he has always done.

Because perhaps the real question isn’t “Is it over for Rohit Sharma?”

Perhaps it should be: “Should it be?”