Rohit Sharma: Master Bows Out

The fact that Rohit Sharma dropped himself for the final Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy was indication enough that the end was nigh for his red-ball career. It will now be seen as the final move made by the then-incumbent leader of India’s Test team, for on May 7, Rohit brought down curtains on his long-format career.

With 4,301 runs scored at a moderate average of 40.57, Rohit didn’t achieve all that a batsman of his talent promised. But each of his 12 Test centuries were scored in winning causes—a world record. Nine of those hundreds were struck when he found his calling as an opener. His 88 sixes in India’s whites remains second only to Virender Sehwag’s tally of 91.

Rohit had to wait six years after making his white-ball debut to re­ceive his first Test cap. He made it count with a hundred (177) on debut in Kolkata and followed it up with a hundred on his home ground in Mumbai. Almost instantly the runs dried up for the then lower-middle order batter, as his next two years in Test cricket were played away from home. The career continued to flag until October 2019, when he was turned into an opener and he responded with twin hundreds (176 and 127) in his very first Test match up the order. By the end of that series against South Africa, Rohit had scored his personal best too—212 in Ranchi.

By early 2022, Rohit took over the Test team’s leader­ship from Kohli and ended up winning 12 out of his first 18 Tests in charge, leading India to their second consecutive World Test Championship (WTC) final in 2023. But just when he looked set to repeat the feat, Rohit oversaw India’s first home Test series loss in a dozen years, getting blanked by New Zealand in late 2024. It only got worse as his batting form abandoned him in Australia as the series ended in Sydney with Rohit having sacrificed himself for the better of the team.

BCCIIndian cricketretirementRohit SharmaVirender Sehwag