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‘Was retirement completely his own decision? Or...’: Atherton calls out Rohit Sharma's poor Test run, fuels speculations
Michael Atherton sparked speculation that the BCCI planning to move on from him as skipper might have pushed Rohit Sharma to announce retirement.
Rohit Sharma shocked the cricketing world by announcing a sudden retirement from international cricket. The swashbuckling opener has been struggling with form in recent times in red-ball cricket, which put pressure on him as the selectors were looking for a new skipper for the England tour. Rohit, a late bloomer in Test for India, played 67 matches, scoring 4,301 runs at an average of 40.57, including 12 centuries and a career-best 212. Taking over the charge of the Test team in 2022, he led the side in 24 matches and secured 12 victories.
The recent Test series defeats at home against Bangladesh and New Zealand, followed by a loss in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, knocked them out of the playoffs race.
Former England batter Michael Atherton sparked speculation that the BCCI planning to move on from him as skipper might have pushed Rohit to announce retirement.
"Was that retirement completely his own decision, or did he get a sense that he's about to be pushed or the axe was coming because there was a report, the day before the announcement from Rohit, that the selectors had decided to move on," Atherton said on Sky Sports.
In the last three Test series, Rohit only managed to score just 164 runs in 8 matches at a poor average of 10.93, as the pressure was mounting on him post-BGT, where he also sat out for the Sydney Test after his struggles in earlier matches.
"So that's speculation, we don't know, but ultimately the decision didn't come as a surprise because it's a bad combination for any captain, as you know, and as I know well if you're losing games, and you ain't getting any runs, and India had lost 5 out of the last 6 matches under Rohit's captaincy. Three against New Zealand and a couple in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, and his form had really tailed off and of course, that's a bad combination for any captain," the former England captain added.
‘Rohit Sharma going to go down as one of the greatest ODI openers’
Meanwhile, Rohit has confirmed that he will continue playing the ODI format and recently expressed his desire to play in the 2027 World Cup.
Atherton labelled Rohit as one of the greatest ODI openers, but isn't very impressed with his Test career.
"I think people will look at him and his best format is ODI cricket. He's going to go down as one of the greatest ODI openers, isn't he? But a funny Test career. He had to wait for a long time to get in and then almost a career of two halves in Test cricket, averaging just a tick over 40 in the end with a dozen hundreds means it's a successful record, but not quite a stellar record," Atherton said.
