It’s fascinating to attend Rohit Sharma’s press conferences. There is a sprinkling of humour, some wit; usually the answers are straightforward and as gripping as his batting in full flow. If it is pleasing to the eyes on the field, it’s pleasing to the ears in the conference hall.
Somehow that aura was missing when he walked in after losing the fourth Test match in Melbourne at the end of last year. He was not his usual self. Something was eating him from within. His batting had hit the nadir, scoring only 31 runs in five innings. One can safely say, the flamboyance was missing from both on and off the field. It was absolutely unlike Rohit who is liked by most in the dressing room.
Yet in all these difficult times it was he who acknowledged that he knew something was missing from his batting. He admitted as much after the Melbourne defeat. “A lot of the things that I am trying to do are not falling in the place that I would want to. But mentally, look, you know, it is disturbing without a doubt,” he had said.
The rumour mills started working rather insidiously. Finally, the drama that was played over the five days amidst discussions of various permutations and combinations, Rohit finally spoke on Saturday. Silence in Indian cricket is never golden it only adds to the intrigue. At 37, Rohit is not growing younger and retirement from the Test was talked about as a logical culmination. Dropped or opted out – the two conjectures were hotly debated more so because it was perhaps the first time in Indian cricket that a captain was dropped or rested during a series.
Like most things in Indian cricket, Rohit appeared on an official broadcaster channel and spoke about his retirement, unexpectedly. Indian cricket and speculations are strange bedfellows but they add to the spice.
And just as everyone thought that Melbourne could be Rohit’s last Test, the man himself dismisses it with disdain. “I had a chat with the coach and the selector. It was very simple. I am not making runs at the moment. I am not in form and it’s an important game.
We need an in-form player. Our batting order isn’t in form at the moment. So out-of-form players can’t carry the team at the moment. So this was the simple thing in my mind,” said Rohit who was replaced by Shubman Gill in the playing XI on Friday.
“This is not a decision of retirement,” Rohit went on to say. “I am not moving away from the game. But I took a decision to step away from this game because I was not able to score runs with the bat. There is no guarantee that I will score runs two months or five months from now. I have seen a lot of cricket, every minute, every second and every day life changes. I believe that things will change but at the same time I have to be realistic as well.”
Indian cricket is going through a transition and it has been a tumultuous tour since the Perth high. From R Ashwin announcing his retirement and leaving midway through the series in Brisbane to Rohit moving back up the order and opening again in Melbourne to Gautam Gambhir having “honest” conversations with the players after the loss in the Boxing Day Test, the last couple of weeks were filled with controversies. Amidst reports of tension within the team head coach Gambhir, addressing media for the first time on tour, added fuel to the fire by not confirming whether Rohit would play in Sydney.
From the time India lost the home Test series against New Zealand, Rohit had been under scrutiny. It was India’s first home Test series loss for the first time in 12 years and he had a poor run with the bat. It compounded with Bumrah leading India to victory in Perth before Rohit joined the team in Australia.
India’s next assignment in Test cricket would be in June, either the World Test Championship final if they qualify or the five-Test tour to England. In the meantime, there is an ODI series against England at home, the ICC Champions Trophy in Dubai and the IPL. A lot could happen, as Rohit himself has said, during this period. He could have a stellar return to the 50-over format winning another ICC title for India as captain. A lot will depend on how the next few months pan out.
For now, the Border-Gavaskar Trophy is there to be retained and a Test to be won in Sydney. As for Rohit’s future, time will tell.
