New Delhi, Dec 30: The modern international cricket calendar, packed to the brim with bilateral series, franchise leagues and multi-format commitments, has quietly pushed domestic one-day cricket to the fringes for many of the game’s biggest names.
In doing so, it has produced a set of striking and, at times, astonishing statistical anomalies that underline just how far the balance has shifted.
The 2025–26 Vijay Hazare Trophy, which began last Wednesday, offered a rare glimpse into this changing landscape.
As many as 22 centuries were scored in the opening phase, but the spotlight inevitably fell on the return of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, two of India’s modern greats, to domestic 50-over cricket after prolonged absences. Rohit had last featured in the tournament in 2018, while Kohli’s previous appearance dated back to 2010.
Kohli’s comeback carried even greater significance. His previous non-ODI List
A match had come in 2013, when he led Delhi in the Challenger Trophy. By turning out for his home side against Andhra, he brought to an end a remarkable run of 195 consecutive international matches in the 50-over format.
That streak is comfortably the longest in history, more than double that of the next-best on the list.Brendon McCullum follows with 96 consecutive ODIs between 2009 and the 2015 World Cup final, while Rohit occupies third place with 91, a sequence that also ended last week when he represented Mumbai against Sikkim.
Kohli, in all, went 12 years and 86 days between two non-ODI List A matches, the longest such gap among the 460 players who have appeared in 70 or more men’s ODIs. Jasprit Bumrah sits second on that list, having not played any 50-over cricket since the 2023 World Cup final; his last non-ODI List A appearance came back in January 2017.
In total, 12 players have gone seven or more years without featuring in a non-ODI List A match while still playing at least 50 ODIs. Eleven of them remain active in 2025.
Four—Kohli, Rohit, Quinton de Kock and Ravindra Jadeja—were part of the recent India–South Africa ODI series, reinforcing how common such gaps have become among established international cricketers.
These patterns highlight the intense congestion of the international schedule and the diminishing role of domestic one-day competitions for top-tier players.
Tour matches for visiting sides have all but disappeared, while the ever-present risk of injury further discourages participation in lower-profile fixtures.
Another telling indicator is the proportion of List A matches that have been ODIs since the start of 2021. Among players with 70 or more ODI appearances, 70.3% of their List A games in this period have been internationals.
By comparison, between 1991 and 1995, that figure stood at just 49.5%. The rise has been gradual since the turn of the millennium but accelerated sharply after 2010.
England provide a clear example of this shift. Until 2002, they hosted three domestic one-day tournaments each season. Since 2010, that number has dropped to one, which now runs alongside the Hundred.
The overlap forces players to choose, and the choice is rarely difficult: the tournament offering better pay, quality and visibility takes precedence. The unintended consequence, however, is a generation of cricketers learning the nuances of 50-over cricket primarily at the international level.
Jacob Bethell’s career trajectory illustrates this trend. Earlier this year, he scored his maiden List A century not in domestic cricket, but in an ODI against South Africa. Of the 50 men who had scored an ODI hundred for England before him, only Keith Fletcher had represented his country before registering a domestic List A century.
Fletcher’s career unfolded in a vastly different era. He played 137 List A matches, including 16 ODIs, and scored just two hundreds across a career spanning more than 25 years and 429 matches. Bethell, by contrast, had played only 30 List A games before his ODI ton, 14 of them for England.
His selection was based largely on perceived potential rather than a weight of domestic numbers, and the 22-year-old has since justified that faith, most recently playing a key role in England’s long-awaited Ashes Test win in Australia.
India’s Ruturaj Gaikwad represents the other end of the spectrum. When he scored his maiden ODI hundred earlier this month, he already had 17 List A centuries to his name. He has consistently excelled in the format since his debut in February 2017, when he struck a big hundred in his first List A outing.
Before the South Africa series, only six of Gaikwad’s 89 List A matches had been ODIs, largely because he is a top-order batter competing for limited spots alongside Kohli and Rohit. An injury to Shreyas Iyer opened the door at No. 4, and Gaikwad seized the opportunity with a composed 105 in Raipur. The innings was notable not just for its timing, but for the fact that in his previous 86 List A innings he had never batted outside the top three.Gaikwad also broke the record for the most List A centuries before scoring one in ODIs, previously held by Australia’s Matthew Hayden.
Hayden’s international breakthrough was similarly delayed by the strength of those ahead of him. He scored his first ODI hundred in his 22nd match, having already played 127 non-ODI List A games over nine years. Once established, the balance shifted dramatically. Between March 2002 and February 2005, Hayden played 81 consecutive List A matches, all of them ODIs, scoring 3070 runs and becoming the first player to amass over 3000 List A runs exclusively through international cricket. (Agencies)
