While Rohit Sharma is a prolific batter in the white-ball game, his Test match record has been a bit of an enigma, and 2024 has been a forgettable year for him both with the bat and captaincy. The 38-year-old has announced his retirement ahead of the marquee England five-match Test series. However, former Indian cricketer Manoj Tiwary opined that Rohit could have been given another game to call it a day instead of doing it on social media.
“If had retired not on social media but on the field after playing, it would have been a more fitting send-off. It would’ve felt better for all of us, too,” Tiwary told Cricbuzz. “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,” Rohit said with a photo of the Team India Test cap on his Instagram Story.
In 14 games in 2024, Rohit scored 619 runs at an average of 24.76. While batting form has taken a dip, Rohit also has bagged a dubious record of getting whitewashed on home soil for the first time ever against New Zealand in November. He later went to Australia, but neither did his performances with the bat improve and his captaincy was also questioned after he lost two of the three games he led and sat out for the final game in Sydney.
“He was a very popular leader among this group of boys. If you see, even the young players wanted to play under him. We always hear them say in their interviews, ‘I really enjoyed playing under Rohit Sharma’s captaincy,’” Tiwary commented on Rohit’s captaincy.
Indian cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar had predicted that Rohit Sharma could end his Test innings if things had not turned around. “I think Rohit obviously will get the opportunity to play in the next couple of matches, that’s for sure. But maybe at the end of it, if he hasn’t scored runs, my feeling is that he himself will take the call,” Sunil Gavaskar said on ABC Sport earlier this year.
