'Rohit Sharma had guts... he will retire from Tests': Srikkanth asserts IND captain already set deadline for himself
Srikkanth feels that Rohit is ageing, and if he fails to regain his mojo in Australia, he will announce his retirement from Test cricket himself.
The series defeat against New Zealand has exposed the flaws in the current Indian Test set-up, and Rohit Sharma's captaincy is also under scrutiny now. It was an embarrassing loss against New Zealand, as India suffered their first-ever whitewash at home in a series with three or more Tests. Rohit's red-ball form has also dipped drastically in recent times, as he has scored just 133 runs in the last 10 innings at an average of 13.30. Team India has played the finals of the first two World Test Championship cycles, but this time, they are now in a tricky position to qualify for the summit clash.
The five-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy starting November 22 will be crucial for India to qualify for the WTC final, but Rohit's form is a big concern for the Asian Giants ahead of the series.
1983 World Cup-winning star Krishnamachari Srikkanth feels that Rohit is ageing, and if he fails to regain his mojo in Australia, he will announce his retirement from Test cricket himself.
"100 percent, you have to start thinking ahead (if India doesn't do well in Australia). If Rohit Sharma doesn't do well, I think he himself will retire from Test cricket, for all you know. He will play ODIs only. He has already left T20I cricket. We have to keep in mind that he is also ageing. He is no longer getting younger," Srikkanth said in his YouTube show.
‘Rohit Sharma had the guts…’
Srikkanth was also impressed with Rohit's honest admissions about his captaincy and underwhelming form after NZ series defeat. The Indian skipper said that he has has to look at his own game and work on his defence a bit to fine tune himself for the BGT 2024-25.
"At least, Rohit Sharma had the guts. Hats off to Rohit Sharma for accepting the fact that he played badly throughout the series and captained badly. That's a great thing. That's the first move of a player to get back to the rhythm. Accepting your fault is very important. That's a very important quality of a human being. He accepted it openly and that means he is on the road to recovery, that's my opinion," he said.