Captain’s exit: on the Indian cricket team

A storied career is grinding to a halt in phases. Rohit Sharma, as is the trend now among cricketers, is doing the slow fade-out. First up, he retired from T20Is, and now at 38, after a poor run in Tests, the Indian skipper has bowed out of cricket’s longest format. If earlier, players did the reverse of quitting limited-overs cricket and stretching their stint in Tests, as was the case with Sachin Tendulkar, modern heroes prefer the kinetic energy of the abridged versions over the gritty charm of the five-day tussle. As the English sport with an Indian heart grapples with an identity crisis in an era of shorter attention spans, players are perhaps swayed by the magnetism of cash-rich T20 leagues, with the Indian Premier League leading the way. Rohit, though, has other motives in keeping away the shadows from ODIs. Dropped from the 2011 World Cup winning squad, he still hurts over India’s semifinal loss to New Zealand in the 2019 World Cup in England, a championship in which he struck five tons. To make it worse, under his captaincy, India lost the World Cup final to Australia in the 2023 edition at Ahmedabad. That India won the 2024 Twenty20 World Cup and this year’s ICC Champions Trophy, has kept him motivated.

Cricket’s beating heart is centred around Tests. A brand that offers second chances, and one that probes the quality in every cricketer. There was a time in the 1980s when Tests were the real deal and ODIs were deemed an after-thought. Much water has flowed in the Thames and Hooghly since then and this is an age in which T20 leagues have more allure. The West Indians led by Chris Gayle were the initial members doing service in diverse T20 leagues across the globe. Rohit and Virat Kohli have donned the India shade from 2007 and 2008, respectively, and their’s have been a long stint. In perhaps forcing Rohit’s exit from Tests, the selectors are doing the slow recasting of Indian batting in Tests. Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane and now Rohit, had to vacate and much would hinge on Kohli and K.L. Rahul, the senior duo, when India heads to England in June for five Tests. Rohit, the one-day supremo, always outdid his Test avatar. Still, to score 4,301 runs from 67 Tests, in which a significant chunk came as an opener, is remarkable.