Team India: Rohit Sharma retires from Test Cricket ahead of England tour, will continue playing ODI Cricket
In what proves to be a shocking development, Rohit Sharma, the captain of the Indian Cricket Team has announced his decision of retiring from Test Cricket with immediate-effect. He will continue to represent the Men in Blue in One Day Internationals but his decision of retiring means that a new captain will lead the team ahead of their forthcoming tour of England for the five-match Test-Series, beginning from the 20th of June.
In an Instagram story shared on Wednesday night, Rohit displayed his Test cap number 280 and wrote, “Hi everyone, I want to announce that I am stepping away from Test cricket. It has been a tremendous privilege to serve my country in white. I appreciate all the love and support I have received throughout the years. I will keep representing India in ODIs.”
The 37-year-old had struggled to perform with the bat in the 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test Series versus Australia, where the Indian team lost by a margin of 3-1. He had a terrible series, averaging just 6.21 in five innings and he also dropped himself from the playing 11 for the final test match in Sydney. Before that series, the Indian skipper also had a tough time in the home series versus New Zealand, where he averaged just 15.17.
According to the news report of IANS, Rohit decided to call it a day from the longest format of the game with an eye to create a young Team India for the future, especially with the next cycle of the World Test Championship (WTC) commencing with the test series versus England.
"This was a situation that had been brewing for quite a while, despite his assertions during the TV interview at the Sydney Test that he wouldn’t be departing anytime soon. Therefore, it can be said that the signs were evident. As a result, the selection of the Test squad for the upcoming tour of England has been postponed by two weeks," a source familiar with the situation told IANS.
Sharma ends his career in red ball cricket which started off with a hundred on debut versus the Windies in Kolkata's Eden Gardens stadium with a total of 4,302 runs coming from his bat in 67 appearances in Test Cricket at a good average of 40.56, including 18 half centuries and twelve hundreds. He captained the Men in Blue in 24 test matches, securing wins on 12 occassions and losing on nine other occassions.
In June of 2024, Sharma had announced his decision to retire from T20 International Cricket following his side's victory over South Africa by a margin of seven runs in the 2024 Men's T20i World Cup.
After Rohit declared his retirement from Test cricket, Shubman Gill has emerged as the leading candidate to become the next Test captain, as the selection committee headed by Ajit Agarkar seeks to introduce fresh talent into the team.
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