Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli continue to hold strong as the pillars of India’s ODI batting. In their last two appearances, two months apart, both Rohit and Kohli have struck scintillating centuries for India.

In their final stretch as India internationals, Rohit and Kohli have been unified by the ‘Ro-Ko’ tag, a delight for the fans and a big sell for the broadcaster. The duo retired from T20Is after leading the country to their second T20 World Cup triumph in 2024. Both announced unceremonious exits from Test cricket in May 2025.

In a recent interaction with JioHotstar, Rohit revealed the origin of the ‘Ro-Ko’ tag and his camarederie with Kohli over the years. Rohit said the two shared laughs when they first came across the viral fan-coined moniker.

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‘People want masala’

“I think we were together. This started, I think, when we were playing in Australia, or right after Australia when we came to India. That’s when this started, and whenever this plays on TV, we look at each other and laugh. Which is good, it’s fun. People want masala, so there you go, there is some masala,” Rohit said.

“Ro-Ko has a nice ring to it. It sounds nice, it sounds good, and people are having a lot of fun with it. Now that we only play one format, even from the broadcaster’s perspective, I’m sure it’s a very nice tagline to use – ‘Oh, Ro-Ko aa gaye! They are back’,” Kohli recently told JioHotstar.

‘Strong camaraderie’

Rohit and Kohli remain the highest active run-scorers in ODI cricket. While Rohit made his debut in 2008 and has built a staggering record as one of the format’s most successful openers, Kohli became only the second man after Sachin Tendulkar to reach 15,000 runs in the format last Sunday.

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“There’s a strong camaraderie between the two of us, and we understand what it requires to be at a certain level when you’re playing at this level. Methods are different, obviously, but that’s how it should be, every individual is different. For what he has done for the team, for this team, there is no question, there is no asking what he has done. It’s there for everyone to see it. And what he is going to do from here on now, I don’t think anything has changed,” Rohit said of his relationship with Kohli.

“He’ll be the same Kohli that we know of: wants to come, prepare well, go get the runs, win games for Team India. Yeah, that’s what I see with him. When he was captain, pretty much the same. When I was captain, pretty much the same. And I don’t see any reason why anything needs to change,” he added.

The pair will next be in action on Thursday.