Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma’s Test retirements have sent shockwaves around the cricketing world. Many didn’t expect it to happen at this stage of their careers.
The two stalwarts were going through rough patches in red-ball cricket, and their underwhelming performances in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy put them under the scanner. They announced the retirements ahead of the England tour to pave the way for the young generations to take the team forward in the next World Test Championship cycle under Gautam Gambhir’s guidance.
Former India cricketer and Yuvraj Singh’s father, Yograj Singh, who is very vocal about his views and opinions, said that the duo still has a lot of cricket left in them and losing Kohli is a big loss for the Indian team.
“Virat is a big player, so it will obviously be a loss. When many players were either removed, retired, or coerced into retirement in 2011, the team fell apart and has still not stood back up. But everyone’s time comes. I feel a lot of cricket is still left in Virat and Rohit,” Yograj told ANI.
Yograj asserted that he even told his son Yuvraj not to retire when he took that decision.
“I told Yuvi (Yuvraj Singh) that it was not the right move when he was retiring. One should walk away from the field when one can no longer walk,” he added.
The former cricketer made a bold prediction about the Indian team without the senior duo and said, “If you form a team full of youngsters, it will always fall apart.”
‘Virat feels that he has nothing more left to achieve’
Meanwhile, he had contrasting views about Kohli and Rohit’s decision to retire from Tests. The 67-year-old didn’t shy away from saying that Rohit needed someone to tell him to work on his fitness.
“Maybe Virat feels that he has nothing more left to achieve. I think Rohit Sharma needed just one person to motivate him daily, for example, to go for a run at 5 AM,” he added.
Yograj said that no senior is left in the Indian dressing room to motivate the next generation of players.
“Rohit and Virender Sehwag are two people who retired too early… The greatest players should play till 50 years of age… I am sad about their retirement as no one is left to motivate the youngsters now,” he added.
Shubman Gill is the favourite to be given the task of starting India’s rebuild with the five-Test England series, which begins on June 20 at Headingley.
The 25-year-old hasn’t been able to live up to the high expectations in red-ball cricket so far. He has scored 1,893 runs at an average of 35.05 in 32 Tests since his debut in 2020, with five hundreds.