If Messi can do it, why can't Kohli, Rohit? Harbhajan backs duo for 2027 World Cup
India great Harbhajan Singh believes Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma should remain in contention for the 2027 ODI World Cup if they continue to perform and maintain their fitness, drawing on Lionel Messi’s recent World Cup campaign to argue that age should not be the deciding factor.
Speaking to PTI in a podcast interview, Harbhajan said performance must remain the ultimate criterion for selection, even as Kohli and Rohit approach the latter stages of their careers. Rohit will turn 40 and Kohli 39 during the 2027 World Cup in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia.
MESSI EXAMPLE
Harbhajan pointed to Messi, who was 39 when he led Argentina to the final of the recent football World Cup, as an example of an elite athlete continuing to make a decisive impact despite his age.
“Whoever the player is, I believe the marker should be performance, not age,” Harbhajan said.
“Virat may be 39 but if he is still beating those 20-year-old guys on the field, it (his age) doesn’t matter. Look at Lionel Messi. At 40 (39), five men fail to stop him. If a player has that kind of fitness and skill where even five opponents can’t keep him at bay, then we know that skill always takes precedence,” he reasoned.
Kohli and Rohit are now India’s one-format veterans after stepping away from T20I and Test cricket respectively. Harbhajan, however, believes their ODI futures should be assessed on what they produce rather than their birth certificates.
“Fitness is a priority, and your performance matters. Performance is the ultimate criterion. So if these two score runs and can match the fitness of a Shreyas (Iyer) or a Yashasvi (Jaiswal), then nothing else matters,” he said.
EXPERIENCE MATTERS
Harbhajan also backed India head coach Gautam Gambhir to trust the experience of Kohli and Rohit when building the 2027 World Cup squad.
“If I were the coach, my job would be to give them the platform as my expectations from Rohit and Virat would be much higher than what I expect from a Vaibhav Sooryavanshi. These two have that experience. They have experience of 300 games which Sooryavanshi won’t have,” he said.
“Yes, a Sooryavanshi can walk in and blast bowlers but Virat and Rohit have the experience.”
KOHLI’S LEGACY
Harbhajan also credited Kohli with changing India’s approach to fitness and developing a stronger winning mentality during his captaincy.
“This change was first brought in by Virat Kohli when he became the captain in 2014-15. Before that we won’t think that we can go for a chase of 400 on the final day. Virat told the boys, ‘let’s at least try. We might lose but if we keep trying one day we will surpass that 400 plus in last innings.'”
“If we have to get 10 wickets on last day, we will go for it. The winning mentality and not settle for draw is what Virat Kohli got,” he recalled.
Harbhajan said Kohli’s biggest contribution was India’s fitness revolution, giving the former captain 90 per cent of the credit for changing the team’s approach.
KNOWING WHEN TO STOP
The former spinner, who took 416 Test and 269 ODI wickets, also acknowledged that every player eventually has to recognise when their body can no longer sustain the demands of elite cricket.
“Rohit and Virat will get their answer from within. You realise when you have reached that phase where you need to call time,” he said.
Harbhajan drew on his own experience, recalling how Ravichandran Ashwin’s emergence made him realise that continuing would require him to start almost from scratch.
“Ashwin was already doing well… You have to accept the reality that this guy (Ashwin) is doing well. If I had to beat Ashwin, I would have had to start from scratch and work as much as I had worked for those first 400 wickets. Could I have done it? The answer came from within that I can’t,” he said.
With more than a year remaining before the World Cup, Harbhajan believes India can wait before finalising their squad, but wants the management to have a clear core group and defined roles at least six months before the tournament.
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