Rohit and Kohli's back-to-back retirements are a victory for Indian cricket!
The Indian Test team is entering a new age. Shubman Gill, Lokesh Rahul, Jasprit Bumrah will not take guidance from two veteran cricketers. The change of era is beginning with the 2025-27 Test World Cup cycle. Can India's young brigade cope with it? Will the absence of Kohli and Rohit be a challenge for Gautam Gambhir's team? The Indian team might have a tough time, particularly in the five-Test series in England. There are a number of young Indian cricketers who can replace Kohli and Rohit. There are batsmen such as Sai Sudarshan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Sarfaraz Khan, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Devdutt Parikkal, Karun Nair. Even though the Test team is not regular, there are veteran cricketers such as Shreyas Iyer.
Wicketkeeper-batsmen Dhruv Jurel, Ishan Kishan are also experimented at the international level. They are also comfortable as specialist batsmen. There are seven-eight cricketers competing for two spots. Competition is intense. There is no space to take things lightly.
The previous year, the performance of Kohli and Rohit in the home three-Test series against New Zealand and the five-Test series against Australia frustrated cricket enthusiasts. Even though they played some good innings here and there, none of them could do it consistently. They let down the team in most instances. They placed the team under stress. There have been calls from all sides to remove them from the playing eleven. A group of veteran cricketers have not kept their discontent a secret with the two senior batsmen. There have been calls to play young cricketers in place of Kohli-Rohit, who have time and again fallen short of expectations.
This time, that barrier has been broken. At least on the performance front, there is no way the Indian team can become weak. The experience of Shubman, Shreyas, Rahul, Bumrah is not little. Mohammed Shami is back from injury. Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav are all in the side. Cricket followers might feel sad about Kohli-Rohit's retirement from Tests. Opening with Rohit and having Kohli at number four was a habit. This time it is time to form new habits. Indian cricket changed even when Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Dravid, VVS Laxman, Virender Sehwag retired. Will take it this time too.
