CHENNAI: In many ways, the writing was on the wall. The signs were there on January 2, 2025 on the eve of the fifth and final Test against Australia in Sydney. After head coach Gautam Gambhir refused to confirm Rohit Sharma’s place in the playing XI, the Indian captain was detached and did little during the training session ahead of a must-win game. He stood with deputy Jasprit Bumrah and watched the rest train before having a short stint with the reserve batters.
Three days earlier, when he addressed the media after losing in Melbourne, Rohit wore a resigning look like never before. He spoke about looking within himself, after a horror run with the bat and how disturbing it has been. If that was the first sign of Rohit playing his last Test in Melbourne, the proceedings in Sydney only reaffirmed it.
While Rohit said he had dropped himself and is not retiring anytime soon on day two of the Sydney Test which India went on to lose, it all came to an end on Wednesday evening as the Indian captain announced that he is calling it a day as Test cricketer. “Hello everyone, I would just like to share that I am retiring from Test cricket. It’s been an absolute honour to represent my country in whites. Thank you for all the love and support over the years. I will continue to represent India in the ODI format,” Rohit wrote on Instagram alongside a picture of faded Test cap.
Rohit’s announcement comes after reports of the selectors conveying the BCCI about moving on from the captain for the upcoming tour of England. His place and captaincy had been under the scanner in the second half of 2024 when India lost a home Test series for the first time in 12 years. His poor form in batting and captaincy continued in Australia where India lost in Adelaide, held on to a draw in Brisbane before crumbling in the Boxing Day Test. That it happened after Bumrah had led India to victory in Perth only added pressure as Rohit did not take part in the fifth and final Test of the series. And it ended up being his last Test series as an India cricketer.
For someone who was always looked at as ‘unfulfilled potential’ in Test cricket, Rohit came to his own six years after making his debut during Sachin Tendulkar’s farewell series against West Indies in 2013. For the better part of the decade, he would be moved up and down the order before being made a regular opener in 2019. Rohit, since then, showed what he was capable of, scoring 2552 runs at 50.03 as an opener till home Test series against England in 2024. In the next six Tests, he managed only 145 runs as his overall average dropped to 42.8.
