India captain Rohit retires from Test duty

India captain Rohit Sharma has retired from Test cricket but will continue to play one-day internationals.

It comes after reports in the Indian media on Wednesday that the 38-year-old would be removed as captain for the Test series in England this summer.

“It has been an absolute honour to represent my country in whites,” Rohit posted on Instagram, alongside a picture of his Test cap.

“Thank you for all of the love and support over the years.”

Rohit will continue to play ODIs and remains skipper in that format, having won the Champions Trophy in March. He retired from T20 internationals after winning the 2024 T20 World Cup.

Rohit has played 67 Tests and has been India’s captain since replacing Virat Kohli in 2022.

He won half of his 24 Tests as skipper, giving him the best win percentage as India captain behind Kohli, and reached the final of the World Test Championship in 2023, where India lost to Australia.

But last year Rohit oversaw the 3-0 home defeat by New Zealand - India’s first Test series defeat at home for 12 years - and the 3-1 loss in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia.

Rohit was dropped for the decisive fifth Test in Sydney after a run of poor form.

The elegant right-hander retires having made 4,301 Test runs at an average of 40.57 with 12 centuries. His top score was 212 against South Africa in Ranchi in 2019, scored off just 255 balls.

He had made only one fifty in 15 innings since his last Test hundred – 103 against England in Dharamsala in March 2024.

The highly-anticipated five-match series against England begins in Leeds on 20 June and marks the start of the new World Test Championship cycle for both sides.

Pace bowler Jasprit Bumrah deputised for Rohit when he missed the first Test in Australia through injury and did so again when Rohit sat out the series finale.

Source: BBC
--Agencies