Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma announced Test retirements within days of each other in May.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) vice-president Rajeev Shukla has clarified that the board didn’t pressure or push Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma to retire from Test cricket. The two veterans of Indian cricket called it quits from red-ball cricket in May, within a week of one another.
Rohit and Virat had already quit T20Is after India won the T20 World Cup 2024, and with them calling time on their Test career, the dashing duo will only be seen in India colors in ODIs.
The first to retire from Test cricket was Rohit Sharma. In 67 Test matches for India, the right-handed batsman, who turned 38 in April of this year, amassed 4301 runs at an average of 40.57.
Both the home series against New Zealand and the road series against Australia were difficult for Rohit with the bat. Rohit chose to sit out the last Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test match against Australia in Sydney because the run was so tumultuous.
Virat Kohli made a lengthy Instagram post announcing his retirement from Test cricket. After scoring 9230 runs in 123 Test matches, including 30 hundreds and 31 half-centuries, Kohli finally decided to end his Test career.
This came as a shock to everyone as fans were expecting them to make the trip to England for five Tests. India has not won a Test series in England since 2007, and Virat and Rohit came agonizingly close in 2021-2022, but the rescheduled Test ended in defeat for India at Edgbaston.
Rumor mills went into overdrive as soon as the two announced their retirements before the England tour. There were rumors that the BCCI, chief selector Ajit Agarkar, and head coach Gautam Gambhir were involved in their abrupt retirements.
Shukla, however, refuted all of these allegations in an interview with the London-based news outlet ANI, stating that the veteran hitters will still be available for ODIs.
“I want to make it very clear once and for all. We are all feeling the absence of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. The decision to retire was made by Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli on their own. It is the policy of BCCI that we never tell any player to retire. It was their call,” Shukla told ANI.
“They have taken retirement on their own. We will always them. We will always consider them as legendary batters. It's very good for us that both of them are available for ODIs,” he added.
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