From 2018 to 2021, Team India was perhaps near their absolute best in Test cricket. Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli were at or near their peaks. The fast bowling was perhaps the best it had ever been. Yet, Team India wasn’t able to claim the Pataudi Trophy (now the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy).
Kohli, the Test batter, will be missed more
To think this time around, Team India can finally win after 18 years, seems highly unlikely. There is a new new captain, Shubman Gill. Without Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, or Umesh Yadav, the bowling isn’t at its strongest. Jasprit Bumrah won’t play all of the matches as well.
And to top all of it, Rohit and Kohli won’t be there. Former England captain and one of the best openers of all time, Geoffrey Boycott, thinks the senior pros will be missed and their absence can affect Team India’s chances of victory against Ben Stokes’ England.
“The retirement of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma hurts the chances of India beating England. Kohli is the biggest loss, as he has been their best batsman and talisman in all three formats. With so much international cricket played by India and so little rest, it takes its toll and the mind becomes fatigued,” Boycott wrote in his column for The Daily Telegraph.
However, he thinks that it’ll be Kohli who will be missed more than Rohit. The former ended as India’s fourth most prolific scorer, while the latter isn’t even in the top fifteen. Kohli hit 12 of his 30 hundreds in SENA countries; that number is equal to Rohit’s entire Test hundred tally.
“It does not matter how much talent or experience you have; if you are not mentally fresh and up for the challenge, then it becomes draining. Rohit was a superb batsman. At his best, a beautiful stroke player, but he won’t be missed as much as Kohli because his Test record was good rather than exceptional. In the last couple of years his batting was a little inconsistent, which was not surprising in his late 30s,” he added.
Rohit Sharma didn’t have mental or physical fitness anymore?
Boycott thinks that physical fitness and mental fatigue may have played a major role in Rohit’s retirement. Unlike Kohli, the last Indian Test captain wasn’t that fit. Many called for him to cut down his weight in the latter half of his career. His struggles with injuries also increased. On top of this, he had to shoulder the responsibility of being India’s all-format captain, an immense pressure job.
“Rohit was never a natural athlete like Kohli and he knows that opening the innings in England can be pretty tough because the new ball moves around more. You really have to be up for the challenge to have any chance of success. I just think that over time the wear and tear of opening the innings and being captain in all three formats wore him down,” Boycott further wrote.
“Rohit Sharma was never a natural athlete like Kohli” – Boycott on why India Test captain retired Inside Sport India.
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