2027 World Cup: Kohli throws the ball on Gambhir's court to take a call on him

The Virat Kohli podcast for Royal Challengers Bengaluru, which has gone viral since Friday, has posed some tough questions for the BCCI bosses. The master batter, fresh from his 10^th century in T20 format in the ongoing IPL, has cleared the relentless speculation about him being keen on playing the 2027 ODI World Cup – but has laid down his terms for it.

While the former batter could only speak for himself, the ambivalence on part of the Gambhir-Agarkar regime about having the Big Two in their plans for the showpiece in South Africa and Zimbabwe is all too well known. This is where Kohli, who has scored 651 runs in the ODI format at an average of 65.1 last year including three centuries (he has already had a century to his name this year) and looks full of beans on the field during the IPL, wants the BCCI to come clear.

 ‘’Either tell me on day one I am not good enough or I am not needed. But if I am made to feel like I need to constantly prove my worth and my value, then I am not in that space,’’ said Kohli as he made it clear that he is in no mood to prove himself again, especially at this stage of his career. If pushed, he hinted at moving on from ‘this space’. There were also not-so-subtle hints that a similar situation last year prompted him to call time on his Test career right in the middle of IPL – while the cricket fraternity felt he could have played red ball cricket for another couple of years.  

Now a one-format player alongwith Rohit Sharma – and the ODIs being well spaced-out affairs these days - the lack of adequate game time has often raised a debate about Kohli’s continuity in international cricket, especially at the age of 37. This is an issue which host Mayanti Langar had raised during the interview – to which Kohli said he can ‘’run boundary to boundary for 40 overs without complaint’’ and any attempt to drop or phase him out cannot be masked as a fitness or workload decision.

Meanwhile, Kohli – who may have let go the captaincy few years back but still remains a talismanic figure in RCB, will be taking on a different leadership role next week. Come Tuesday (19 May), Kohli will headline the RCB Innovation Lab Indian Sports Summit Powered by Leaders, returning as one of the marquee voices at the third edition of the event in Bengaluru. His session this year is titled: ‘Mind Over Everything: Virat Kohli on Peak Performance’ - a theme that captures the current phase of his career.

The RCB Innovation Lab Indian Sports Summit, to be held on 19 May at the Padukone Dravid Centre of Excellence will bring together leaders from sport, business, governance and technology to discuss the future of Indian sport - both on and off the field. The names include Hari Ranjan Rao, Sports Secretary, Government of India, Anurag Dahiya, Chief Commercial Officer, ICC, Mo Bobat, Director of Cricket, RCB and Peter Hutton, Global Sports & Media Advisor.