Indian cricket and Messrs Gautam Gambhir and Ajit Agarkar might be in various stages of ‘moving on’ and ‘letting go’ of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, with an eye on the ODI future.

But the star batsmen’s match-winning partnership and big runs (Rohit 121* off 125 and Kohli 74* off 81) and the lingering images of their stardom from emotional fans at Sydney, mean foreign franchise leagues are waiting to pounce on the duo, as soon as they are relieved of India NT contracts.

Ravichandran Ashwin might well have been just a canary in the coalmine after he was brought into the Big Bash League, though foreign franchise leagues will need to outbid Sharma and Kohli’s IPL value earnings, to persuade them to retire from all formats (including IPL) to land them.

Cricket Australia chief Todd Greenb

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