Rohit and Kohli Reunite With Half the Attack Away

Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli trained together in Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday, two days before India open the West Indies ODI series. They last shared a match at Lord’s on July 19.

Captain Shubman Gill now leads a 15-man ODI group that has to cover Jasprit Bumrah, Shreyas Iyer and Hardik Pandya at the same time. The reunion is real. The attack that will walk out with them on Sunday is not India’s first-choice one.

Rohit and Kohli Shared the Nets Again

Kohli went in first at Greenfield International Stadium and took on the bowlers, rolling through the strokes that have followed him for a decade. A short rain break pushed Rohit into the second batting group, where he worked on timing rather than a long simulated innings.

Both men had landed in Thiruvananthapuram and joined Gill’s squad after staying out of India’s white-ball work since that England trip. The session was their first shared net since July, and the photographs moved faster than any selection note attached to the week.

BCCI cameras were back on the same ground on Friday, posting stills under the line “Back in ODI mode” and later a training clip from the outfield. The public conversation stayed on the two veterans in one frame. The more useful picture from the week is Kohli talking through a drill with Ruturaj Gaikwad, because Gaikwad is the batter whose ODI place is actually in play.

Back in ODI mode 👌

📸 #TeamIndia putting in the work in Thiruvananthapuram ahead of #INDvWI 🏃‍♂️💪 pic.twitter.com/sRuuoVdyxg

— BCCI (@BCCI) September 25, 2026

The First Home ODI Block of the World Cup Cycle

When the Board named the squad on September 16, the ICC framed Gill’s side as building momentum towards the 2027 World Cup in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia. That is the job description for these three games, even if the week has been sold as a Rohit-Kohli homecoming.

The calendar does some of the selling. The Asian Games in Japan run from September 24 to October 3, which is the full span of this ODI series. Iyer captains the T20I side that follows from October 6, and several regular white-ball names are with him in that Games squad rather than in Kerala.

Sunday’s match is the first of eight white-ball games against West Indies on this trip, three ODIs then five T20Is. Only the 50-over leg is Gill’s to run.

THE THREE ODIs

October 3 is also the day the Asian Games cricket assignment is due to end, which is why Iyer’s group can join the T20I camp and still miss every ODI. Bumrah is in that Games squad too, and he is not in either West Indies white-ball party, so the whole home series runs without him.

Who India Is Missing in Thiruvananthapuram

India’s ODI seam list for this series is Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Gurnoor Brar, Auqib Nabi and Nitish Kumar Reddy. That is a full attack on paper and a stand-in attack in World Cup terms, because Bumrah is in Japan and Hardik still does not have fitness clearance from the Centre of Excellence to bowl 10 overs.

Reddy was pulled out of the Asian Games squad so he could take that workload here, with Vipraj Nigam named as his replacement in Japan. Nabi, who toured Sri Lanka with the Test group in August without playing, and Punjab batter Naman Dhir both received their first ODI call-ups in the same 15.

THE NAMES LEFT OUT OF THIS ODI XI FIGHT

• Jasprit Bumrah: Named in the Asian Games T20 squad and omitted from both West Indies white-ball squads, so he misses the entire home series.
• Shreyas Iyer: Captains the Asian Games side and the five T20Is that start in Lucknow on October 6, which is why KL Rahul is Gill’s ODI vice-captain.
• Hardik Pandya: Still waiting on Centre of Excellence clearance, which is the gap Reddy was moved across to cover.
• Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Ishan Kishan: All in the Asian Games party that overlaps the three ODIs.

Dhir’s domestic spike is the reason he is here at all. He piled up 655 runs in 10 games in the Sher-E-Punjab T20, striking at 217.61 with a best of 173, and he has been picked for a middle-order look while Iyer is away. Gaikwad returns after last playing an ODI in the home series against South Africa last year. Ravindra Jadeja is back in the 50-over group for the first time since the New Zealand series in January. Dhruv Jurel is the reserve keeper behind Rahul.

West Indies Arrive Already on the Qualifier Road

Shai Hope’s squad is not a practice bowling machine, and it is not playing for a direct World Cup ticket either. West Indies sit 10th in the ICC Men’s ODI Team Rankings. The cut-off for automatic 2027 places is September 30, the morning of the second ODI in Guwahati, and even two wins in India would not lift them into the top eight.

Two-time champions are therefore bound for the Qualifier in February 2027, the third time running they have had to go that way. Ireland are on the same Full Member shelf. Head coach Daren Sammy has treated the tour as a form check against the top-ranked side rather than a last raid on the table, and the ICC note on his squad is blunt: automatic qualification comes to an end after that second ODI.

Playing against the top team in the world presents us with a chance to fine tune and improve our performances as an ODI team which has seen quality performances across the cycle. The series also creates a valuable platform to assess players who are stepping into important roles for this series with a long-term target of competing in the World Cup in 2027.

Daren Sammy, West Indies head coach, ICC squad announcement

Jason Holder has been rested for the trip. Alzarri Joseph, Shamar Joseph and Jayden Seales still give Hope a pace core, with Gudakesh Motie the frontline spinner and Keacy Carty plus Sherfane Rutherford among the batting names. Hope himself is eighth in the batting rankings on 673 points. For India, that is still a home series against a side that cannot change its World Cup path this week. For West Indies, it is the first look at the bowling they will see again if they come through February.

Lord’s Was Their Last Shared Innings

The last time Rohit and Kohli batted in the same India innings, England made 387 for 3 at Lord’s and still had to survive a chase that reached 360 for 7. Rohit struck 138 off 110 balls, 17 fours and five sixes, the first men’s ODI hundred by an Indian at the ground and his 34th in the format. Kohli made 74 off 60 with four fours and three sixes. Gill scored 77. It was not enough, and it was their 400th international match as a pair.

THE ENGLAND ODIS IN JULY

1. July 14, 2026: India chase 259 at Edgbaston and win by six wickets. Rohit makes 11, Kohli 5, Gill 80 before retiring hurt.
2. July 16, 2026: India are bowled out for 233 in Cardiff and England get home with 35 balls to spare. Kohli scores 65, Rohit 5.
3. July 19, 2026: England post 387 for 3 at Lord’s, Ben Duckett 141 and Jacob Bethell 91, then hold India to 360 for 7 to win by 27 runs and take the series 2-1.

Across those three innings Rohit scored 154 runs and Kohli 144. The Lord’s match alone had 747 runs in it. England had not taken a bilateral ODI series off India since 2018. That is the form line India are walking back into, not a warm-up cartoon against a side already packing for the Qualifier.

Gaikwad, Jaiswal and the Leftover Batting Minutes

Gill said in Birmingham in July that Rohit and Kohli remained an integral part of the ODI side and that the England series was World Cup work. Head coach Gautam Gambhir, speaking to JioStar before this home block, went further on what that does to a young captain.

In ODIs, he is very fortunate that he has got the likes of Rohit and Virat to help him on and off the field. Leaving out anyone in Indian cricket from the playing eleven is always going to be tough. But when you have to do that as a young captain, it is probably the toughest job for any coach and captain to do it. So far, he has done that. He has actually ticked all the boxes.

Gautam Gambhir, India head coach, on JioStar

Gambhir also said Gill has had a tough time in one-day cricket after series losses to England, Australia and New Zealand, and that the results should turn because the habits are right. The batting rankings already look like a closed shop. Gill leads the ICC Men’s ODI batting list on 801 points, Kohli is third on 767 and Rohit is fourth on 758, with New Zealand’s Daryl Mitchell second on 794.

INDIA’S TOP THREE ON THE ODI BATTING LIST

• No. 1, 801 points: Shubman Gill, the ODI captain, holds a seven-point lead over Mitchell.
• No. 3, 767 points: Virat Kohli sits nine points above Rohit and 34 behind his own captain.
• No. 4, 758 points: Rohit Sharma remains inside the world’s top four after the Lord’s hundred.

If those three bat, the leftover international minutes are what Gaikwad, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Dhir are playing for. Jaiswal is in the 15 as an opener’s understudy. Gaikwad is the returning middle-order candidate. Dhir is the domestic bolt-on. That is not a reunion story, and it is the only selection fight this series actually contains, because Gambhir has already said how hard it is to leave the other names out.

The Opener Is Sunday at Greenfield Stadium

WHAT WE KNOW

• The start: The first ODI begins at 2:00 p.m. IST on September 27 at Greenfield International Stadium.
• The squad: Fifteen names are fixed, with Gill captain and Rahul vice-captain.
• The absences: Bumrah is not in either West Indies white-ball squad, and Hardik has no Centre of Excellence clearance.
• The opponent: West Indies cannot take an automatic 2027 place, whatever happens in Thiruvananthapuram or Guwahati.

WHAT IS UNCONFIRMED

• The XI: Whether Nabi or Dhir plays, and whether Jaiswal or Gaikwad is the extra batter, is still a match-eve call.
• The opening pair: Rohit with Gill is the recent England method; Jaiswal’s presence keeps another version on the sheet.

Guwahati follows on September 30 and New Chandigarh on October 3. Then the ODI group hands the week to Iyer’s T20I side. Rohit and Kohli will have had three home innings to show that the Lord’s chase was a series they still belong in, in a side whose World Cup bowling spine is somewhere else.