Former India head coach Ravi Shastri said he would have made sure Rohit Sharma, who recently announced his retirement from Test cricket, played in the last Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test against Australia in Sydney earlier this year. Last week, Rohit wrapped up his Test career with 4,301 runs in 67 matches, averaging 40.57, with 12 centuries and a top score of 212. As Test captain from 2022, Rohit led the team in 24 matches, winning 12 and taking the team to the finals of the 2023 World Test Championship.
But Rohit’s performance had dropped since September last year. In the home series against Bangladesh and New Zealand, he only managed to score over 50 runs once, averaging just 10.93. After missing the first Test in Perth for the birth of his son, he played the next three Tests but only scored 31 runs. This tough stretch meant Rohit, now 38, missed the final Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test in January.
Shastri shared his thoughts on The ICC Review show, recalling how he saw Rohit at an IPL toss. He said, “I got to chat with him briefly and told him if I were the coach, he would have definitely played in that last Test.” With the series at 2-1, Shastri explained why he felt Rohit should have been in the game. “The match could have gone either way. The pitch in Sydney was tricky. Even in a rough patch, Rohit is a game-changer. If he had gone in and played, he could have scored 35-40 runs, and who knows, the series might have been tied.”
Shastri added that this approach is just his way of thinking, and he wanted to express it after keeping it to himself for a while. With Rohit and Virat Kohli retiring from Tests, India is heading into a new chapter as they prepare for their five-match tour of England starting on June 20 in Headingley. These Tests will also kick off a new ICC World Test Championship cycle for India.
