Is the Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli retirement announcement round the corner? | Cricket News

This isn’t the time for ‘I told you so’, but of sadness,” the 78-year old Jim Maxwell, the ABC radio commentator for 51 years says.
A day later, his voice is measured. “There has been a shoulder barge, luckily there was a hundred at Perth, but my takeaway of Kohli isn’t anything from this series; I shall happily takeaway memories from what he has done here in the past. We Australians haven’t seen the best of Rohit in Tests … he seems past it.”
It’s no longer a case of ‘if’ but ‘when’ will Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma call it a day? There is the 50-over Champions Trophy in 50 days time; after that? Or will they announce a Test retirement first in Australia at the end of the fifth Test at Sydney or something more drastic …?
India’s captain Rohit Sharma bats during play on the last day of the fourth cricket test between Australia and India at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne, Australia. (AP)
And to think that Rohit started the Day 5 rather well, the best he has seen in this series. The first good sign came in the fourth ball of the fourth over when his left foot stirred, slid out forward a bit as he patted down a Pat Cummins delivery. He got off the mark in the fifth over with a tap to left of mid-off.
The deliveries weren’t deviating a great deal on the fifth-day pitch and he didn’t have to do any last-instant adjustments with his hands, but play the line – the thing he is most comfortable doing.
Slowly, the feet were moving a touch – nothing striking but for a batsman who has been stuck at the crease almost, this was better. He played out Cummins’s first spell of three overs and had played just one ball off Mitch Starc’s first three overs. When he came on strike to Starc again in the 8th over, he went for a drive but squirted it past backward point for three runs. He steadied himself once again.
Scott Boland got a couple to kick up from back of length and straighten. Rohit would get a tad squared-up but would instinctively yank his bottom-hand off the handle – and the resultant edge would die well before the slip cordon.
India’s captain Rohit Sharma watches the ball after playing a shot during play on the last day of the fourth cricket test between Australia and India at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne, Australia. (AP)
In between, he would occasionally walk across to chat with his partner Yashasvi Jaiswal when he sensed a mental error from the youngster. Just a slow walk, a quiet word or two, and back. And for most part at the non-striker’s end, he would stand, resting on his bat, his legs crossed.
He did look more serene than ever on this tour and came his best shot in the 11th over. Pat Cummins had brought himself back from the other end, and Rohit leaned forward to punch the wobbling-seamer rather crisply to mid-off. No run came, but it felt like the past had revisited him, a memory from better days.
Drinks break intervened and something was immediately off. The first ball Boland delivered in the channel, Rohit had a poke and miss. Next ball, the bat-face shut early for an inward moving ball on the off but he crossed over for a single towards midwicket. Next ball he faced was the first Cummins in the next over.
Tempted perhaps the length for it was a very full delivery, and sucked in the initial angle for it seemingly coming inwards, he decided to disregard its line or wait and watch for the late deviation if any. It was moving in from outside off to home in on the off, and he waved his hands for across the line whippy-flick, but the ball just about straightened to take the edge and flew to gully where Mitch Marsh cupped his arms and caught it on the rebound.
India’s Virat Kohli reacts as he run between the wickets to score during play on the last day of the fourth cricket test between Australia and India at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne, Australia. (AP)
When KL Rahul fell in the same over, it brought in Virat Kohli. Before he could face his first delivery in the next over, the Australian section of the crowd rang out boos. Almost immediately, the Indian section started chanting ‘Kohli Kohli!’.
The action moved towards the final over before lunch. Mitch Starc slipped in a full ball well outside off – the tempter, the sucker ball. It was as obvious a ploy. And yet, as Maxwell the radio veteran would say, that mental discipline has been lacking. The mind knows, the brain is aware, but something snaps in him and he goes chasing. And off he went for a big booming drive and was nicked off.
An across-the-line ambitious flick, and a wide chaser squeezed in pressure on the Indian team and left two star players staring at the finish line. R Ashwin has already retired and left mid-series; what would his contemporaries do? Kohli, the modern-day great Test, and Rohit, a man who for a couple of years had flirted with Test stardom, but will go down as a Test batsman who never quite fulfilled the promise he had shown in his younger years. The curtain is beginning to slide down from above; will they give themselves one more Test at Sydney with BGT still open and out there for the taking or …?

Why should you buy our Subscription?

You want to be the smartest in the room.
You want access to our award-winning journalism.
You don’t want to be misled and misinformed.

Choose your subscription package