ROHIT Sharma has retired from Test cricket with immediate effect, he announced on social media. He confirmed that he will continue playing ODIs.
“Hello everyone I would just like to share that I am retiring from Test cricket. It’s been an absolute honour to represent my country in whites. Thank you for all the love and support over the years. I will continue to represent India in the ODI format,” said Rohit in his statement.

The decision brings an end to an 11-year career in the longest format, during which Rohit played 67 Tests, captaining 24 of them since taking over the reins of the team from Virat Kohli in 2022. He finishes with an aggregate of 4301 runs, including 12 centuries.

Rohit’s retirement comes close to India’s upcoming tour of England, where they are scheduled to play five Tests. The selection of the squad is set to happen soon, and will now have a new captain. In his most recent assignment as a Test captain in Australia, Rohit had at one point sat out considering his
own poor form. India lost the series 3-1, with the Boxing Day Test at MCG late last year being Rohit’s last.
Rohit was originally pencilled in to make his Test debut in the 2010 Nagpur Test against South Africa before suffering a freak injury moments before the toss. It took him a further three years before he was picked to play the Kolkata Test of 2013 against West Indies, which he marked with a century. Another century followed in the next Test in Mumbai.

But all that early promise appeared to be coming to nothing as Rohit went through five middling years in the format, with the only hundred in this period coming in the Nagpur Test of 2017 against Sri Lanka. His red-ball career received a fillip in 2019 when he was promoted up to open the batting against the visiting South African team in 2019, a three-match series in which Rohit hit two hundreds and his only double hundred in the format – a 212 in Ranchi.

Further success followed against England in 2021, when he scored a masterful 161 on a raging turner in Chennai and another match-winning 127 in India’s win at The Oval.

He scored two centuries against the same opponent in 2024 once more as he led an inexperienced side to a come-from-behind 4-1 series win. But having averaged 45.46 at the start of the 2024-25 season, he endured a dip in returns, managing a solitary 50+ score in 15 trips to the crease as his average dropped by four points.

His captaincy record too took a big hit through the season as India were swept 0-3 by New Zealand, the first time India lost a home series in 12 years. In all, under his leadership, India had a 12-9 win-loss record. (Cricbuzz)