Former India head coach Ravi Shastri said that he must have ensured Rohit Sharma, who recently declared his retirement from Test cricket, stepped on the field for the final border-Gavaskar Trophy Test against Australia in Sydney earlier this year. Last week, Rohit included his Test cricket with 4,301 runs in 67 matches at an average of 40.57, including 12 centuries and 212 career-headed scores. As India’s Test Captain since 2022, Rohit led the team in 24 tests and won 12 occasions, including the runner-up at the 2023 World Testing Championships.
But a bad run since September last year meant that Rohit’s Test career was in a difficult situation. In the domestic series against Bangladesh and New Zealand, Rohit was able to cross the 50 -run mark only once, while an average of only 10.93.
After remembering the first test in Perth due to the birth of his son, Rohit returned to play in the next three tests, but scored just 31 runs. As a result of that poor run, Rohit, 38, sat out of the final border-gavaskar trophy test at SCG in January.
“I saw a lot on the toss (during an IPL match) to Rohit. In the toss, you don’t get enough time to speak. Although I put my hand on my shoulder in one of the game. I think it was in Mumbai, and I told him, if I was a coach, you never played that final Test match.
At the ICC review show, Shastri said, “You must have played that last Test match as the series was not over.
At that time, with a series 2–1, Shastri further explained why Rohit should have played a Test match in Sydney. “It was a 30-40-run game. And this is what I told him. The pitch in Sydney was so spicy. The kind of form he was is a match-winner.
“If he had gone, felt the situation, felt the situation and broke it for 35-40 on the top, then you never know. It would have a chain level. But it is for everyone. Other people have different styles. It is my style. It is my style and I tell him. It is sitting in my heart. It was a long time I told him to tell him.”
Rohit and Virat Kohli’s test retirement means that India will enter a new era of Test cricket, when England will start in Headingly on 20 June on a five -match tour. Five tests against England will also mark the beginning of the new ICC World Test Championship cycle for India.
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