Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli both retired from Tests ahead of India's tour of England.
Former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar has stated that Team India fans shouldn’t worry or panic after the retirements of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli from Test cricket. Just before the England trip, Kohli and Rohit, two mainstays of the Indian Test team, announced their retirements from the format.
One of the openers and the No. 4 place are now open, creating two significant gaps in the Indian batting order. Manjrekar stated in a video posted to his Instagram account that there will be panic right now, but he also cited how India recovered from the retirements of the renowned Indian cricket fab four—Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, and Sourav Ganguly.
"I know there'll be a few fans concerned. There was a sense of panic when the Fab Four quit all at the same time, but guess what? A couple of years later, India was the number one test team in the world.
So, as long as I believe in this very strongly, as long as the sport is popular in India and there are enough young players, youth, desperate to play for India, and there are thousands in India, which means anybody who sort of comes through that kind of a grind has to be quality talent," said Manjrekar in his Instagram video.
Manjrekar continued by saying that the team will continue to be among the best in the world and find new bowlers and stars. However, Manjrekar stated that since batting in foreign conditions has long been a problem, time will be needed with the young team.
The new team will have nothing to lose, the former cricket player added.
"So yes, it will take a bit of time, but let's not panic. Remember what happened after the Fab 4: the Indian bowling quality improved. The same could happen here as well. You'll discover new stars and new bowlers, and India will continue to be one of the top teams in the world. Then you need some time. Because in overseas conditions, batting is very important, and that is where our current fragility lies.
But guess what? There's another way to look at this current Indian team, where Rohit and Virat Kohli were part of the Indian team. India lost 3-0 at home against New Zealand and lost poorly, badly in Australia as well. So guess what? With this team, we just have to play with nothing to lose. All the best, New India," said Manjrekar.
Here is the video: