In Indian cricket, sentimental retirements have often masked larger issues of selection & form. Superstars have usually extended playing careers and scripted their own exits. For India’s captain, however, retirement talk is gathering steam ahead of the Sydney Test. For Kohli, too, holding on to his spot looks increasingly difficult with each failure. Only one may be left standing after the final Test of this tour
MELBOURNE: Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli aren’t cut from the same cloth, but their careers are definitely fraying at the edges at the same time.
With every predictable dismissal, the end is looming. It’s not here yet. Maybe tomorrow. Or perhaps the day after. It must be an infuriating wait for these two declining stalwarts.

Rumours are swirling as the caravan prepares to enter Sydney for the last stop on the Border-Gavaskar Trophy tour. Perhaps captain Rohit, the lesser of the two Test batsmen, will have his head on the chopping block first. If India don’t make the World Test Championship final, Sydney, it is being presumed, could be Rohit’s final port of call, a last chance to sign off with a hurrah.
Kohli’s may be a longer wait. A modern Test great, he still has time if he so chooses. Kohli still looks the part in patches, though the mind seems scrambled. It’s getting easier and easier for opposition bowlers to plan his dismissals. Or, perhaps, there will be redemption round the corner, a Steve Smith-like turnaround, and a few more great knocks to add to the lore? The temptation to linger on is irresistible.
Of course, a Rohit retirement now would be extremely convenient for the Ajit Agarkar-led selection committee. Celebrity worship and brand recognition is so deeply entrenched in Indian cricket’s cloak-and-dagger management style that coaches and selectors struggle to make the tough calls.

Even now, with the series on the line, the chatter – no doubt fuelled by whispers from within the machine – is always about ‘retirement’, never about performance. Indian cricket’s super stars, apart from one or two exceptions, have never shared a healthy relationship with being dropped, or with the dreaded ‘R’ word.
For selectors, too, ‘retirement’ makes it easier. The call appears to be voluntary. Just look at the way Ravichandran Ashwin bid goodbye in Brisbane.
The talk should instead be about holding on to one’s spot. Retirement, irrespective of age, is a personal thing and not the issue here. If a player doesn’t perform, he cannot keep his place. Great players get a longer rope, but it still runs out at some point. What he subsequently decides to do with his playing career – retire or keep playing – is his own call to make. Whether to pick him or not is the call of the selectors and the coach, if he has a say in such matters.
Unfortunately, that isn’t how Indian cricket, or even its rabid fans, function. There are two ways to look at the Rohit problem which has dogged the team since the pink-ball Test in Adelaide. Going by performance benchmarks alone, his spot in the playing XI in Sydney shouldn’t be a guarantee, even if he is the captain or it turns out to be his last Test with the Indian team. Ashwin, after all, didn’t play in Brisbane.
Rohit’s problem isn’t limited to Australian soil. He averages 24.76 from 26 innings in 2024. This includes two hundreds and two half-centuries. In India’s last five defeats, he averages 11.20 from 10 innings. His last 11 Test innings have brought him returns of 2 and 52, 0 and 8, 18 and 11 (all vs New Zealand at home), 3, 6, 10, 3, 9 (all in Australia on this tour).

Even as captain, his overseas record is middling. He has led in eight overseas Tests, losing four, winning two and drawing two. In these Tests, with the bat Rohit averages 29.92, which includes that magnificent 127 at the Oval. Before arriving here, India were whitewashed at home by New Zealand, an unthinkable blow. India have now lost five Tests under Rohit this season, equalling Sachin Tendulkar’s record from 1999-2000.
Numbers, though, aren’t everything when it comes to batsmen of pedigree. Rohit just hasn’t looked like his old self out there in the middle. In Adelaide he took a blow for the team, shifting to the middle order from his regular opening slot since KL Rahul and Yashasvi Jasiwal had just engineered a Test win in Perth along with Jasprit Bumrah.
The move didn’t work and at the MCG he batted better after returning as opener, though the runs still didn’t come. In the first innings he was caught in two minds playing his favourite pull shot. In the second he stood firm with a Test to save, and some of that laidback swagger looked like returning when he perished trying to play an attacking shot.
The other way is to treat it as an issue of form. While it’s easy to gauge from the numbers – he has 164 runs in 15 innings this season, starting with the Tests against Bangladesh – that Rohit has had a horror run, it’s been only four months or so, from September 19 (start of the Chennai Test against Bangladesh) till the end of the year. Some famous batters have been known to nurse poor form for far longer. So why talk of retirement and not form, even though Rohit is inching towards 38 years of age?
Either way you look at it, Rohit’s selection in Sydney shouldn’t be an automatic choice. Kohli is in a similar bind but with a significant difference. With Kohli, the numbers make for equally dreary reading – he averages 24.52 this year – but he is at a superior level compared to Rohit as a Test batsman. The debate is different.
Plus, he has a century in Perth on this tour, the one time he got to bat against the older Kookaburra ball. He has shown self-restraint. The first-innings 36 from 86 balls at the MCG was a small but significant knock which earned praise from the likes of Smith.
Kohli’s problem has been both technical – a tendency to reach out and drive at deliveries on the fifth or sixth stump line with askew footwork – and mental, motivated by the urgency to score some quick runs, since the runs aren’t coming. The two are linked.
Kohli too, has been in a long, gradual decline since the first Covid-enforced break. There could still be some gas left in the tank. Kohli may still have a prolific season or two in him. However, on current form, does he deserve to keep his place? Who can replace him at No. 4 in the present squad? These are questions the team management has to answer.
As for Rohit, is this the end of the line? Sydney will provide.