Is Rohit Sharma's Test Career over? Hitman is set to be excluded from the England Tour, this player will lead the team
The recent performances of Team India in Test Cricket have been shambolic and they suffered back-to-back series defeats in recent times. They first suffered a crushing 0-3 defeat to New Zealand in the three-match home Test Series. Then, they fell to Australia by a margin of 1-3 in the 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy series in Australia. Due to losing six out of their last eight test matches, the Men in Blue failed to qualify for the final of the current World Test Championship (WTC) cycle for the first ever.
Will Rohit Sharma be a part of the team on the England Tour?
The performances of the Indian skipper Rohit Sharma with the bat were very poor in the Test Series versus the Australians, as he managed to score just 31 runs in three games. He eventually decided to drop himself from the Sydney Test-Match due to his poor performance with the bat. Then, the 37-year-old played the Ranji Trophy for Mumbai, where he scored just 31 runs in both innings versus Jammu & Kashmir.
Now the Cricket Governing Body of India, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has started planning for the future in Test Cricket. According to the news report of PTI, it's looking really difficult for the Hitman Rohit Sharma to find a place in Test Team. The report states that the 37-year-old is unlikely to be selected in the squad for the tour of England, starting in June of this year.
The Men in Blue are scheduled to take part in five Test matches on the England tour. The report of PTI said, 'Jasprit Bumrah is likely to return to the IPL for the Mumbai Indians (MI) and then he will be seen leading the Indian team on the England tour as Rohit Sharma won't be seen playing Test Cricket again.'
The report further claimed that the premier seamer was not included in the Champions Trophy squad as he has not yet started bowling at his regular level. People aware of this particular matter believe that it was very difficult for the 31-year-old to become match fit in such a short period of time and therefore, the Ajit Agarkar-led selection committee decided to go ahead with Harshit Rana instead.
Jasprit Bumrah set to become the new captain
Bumrah is all set to become the new captain of Team India in the longest format of the game. He has led the Men in Blue on three occasions so far in the format, in which he has led them to victories in one game and has suffered defeats in the other two. The 31-year-old led the team for the first time in 2022 in the rescheduled Birmingham Test-Match as regular skipper Rohit Sharma was not available since he was battling Covid-19.
The Indian team lost that game versus the Three Lions but Bumrah as a skipper showed a lot of potential. He helped them start off the 2024-25 BGT series on a winning note as they went on to secure an easy win in Perth. Jasprit also handled the leadership duties in the Final Test Match in Sydney where the Men in Blue suffered an embarrassing defeat.
What did Rohit Sharma say about his retirement?
Captain Rohit Sharma will be turning 38-years-old before the commencement of the England Tour. During the Sydney Test Match of the BGT versus the Aussies, he had a chat with Indian broadcasters Star Sports and he had made up his mind of not hanging up his boots in the longest format of the game just yet. " I am not going to hang up my boots in Test Cricket any time soon. I decided to drop myself from the Sydney Test because I wasn't able to score runs and perform well. I will grind hard and make a grand comeback. I am unable to score runs at present but there's no guarantee that I will not score runs after a period of five months," he said.
India versus England, five-match Test Series Full schedule
June 20-24, 1st Test, Headingley
July 2-6, 2nd Test, Birmingham
July 10-14, 3rd Test, Lord's
July 23-27, 4th Test, Manchester
July 31-August 4, 5th Test, The Oval