Rohit Sharma (L) and Virat Kohli© AFP
It was a horrible outing for Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli in the recently-concluded Test series against Australia. Despite scoring a brilliant ton in the first Test match, Kohli finished the series with 190 runs at an average of 23.75 across eight innings. The star batter’s struggles with deliveries outside the off-stump were once again exposed as his batting technique was criticised by both fans as well as experts. The situation was worse for Rohit who scored just 31 runs in 3 matches before dropping himself for the final Test in Sydney. While speculations are rife about their future, a report by Dainik Jagran claimed that the star batters are unlikely to retire on their own, leaving the tough task up to the selectors.
The report claimed that BCCI officials were unhappy with India’s performance in Australia but they will find it difficult to force the duo into retirement considering their pedigree and star status.
“The officials of the team are also unhappy with the defeat. The team going through a difficult phase of change will now have to do a lot of introspection after returning home. When asked about this, the top BCCI official said I was listening to Gavaskar and Irfan after the match. When asked about Virat and Rohit, he said there are no indications that these two will retire from Tests on their own. BCCI cannot even ask them to retire, but something will have to be done for the team’s betterment. Certainly, when the time comes, the selectors will take the right decision,” read the report.
The report also claimed that Devajit Saikia, who is set to replace Jay Shah as the new BCCI secretary, and Prabhtej Bhatia, who applied for the post of treasurer, had a conversation about Kohli’s batting troubles.
“One official said that he has been out like this in the last six innings, while the other corrected him and said that this may have happened eight times,” the report stated.
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