Rohit Sharma wanted a Dhoni-like Test retirement but BCCI refused, new report reveals

Indian skipper Rohit Sharma announced his retirement from Test cricket earlier this month. The 38-year-old took to his official Instagram handle to share the news with his friends and followers. Since then, several reports have speculated about what led to Rohit’s decision to retire from red-ball cricket and how things unfolded behind the scenes between the star cricketer and the BCCI.

BCCI turned down Rohit’s mid-series exit plan

A new report from Sky Sports has claimed that Rohit wanted to retire mid-series like MS Dhoni did in 2014, but the BCCI turned down his request. India are scheduled to play a five-match Test series against England starting on 24 June. The report stated that the BCCI offered Rohit the option to go as a player without the captaincy but he chose to retire instead.

The BCCI reportedly declined his mid-series retirement request as they wanted to maintain leadership consistency throughout the series. Meanwhile, reports suggest that the Indian selectors are considering Shubman Gill as the next Test captain. According to Sky Sports, both Gill and Rishabh Pant have been identified as potential candidates and informal discussions have already been held with them.

However, the report also claimed that one of the selectors has concerns about Gill taking over as Test captain citing the lack of a guaranteed place for him in the red-ball side. The selector reportedly suggested appointing Gill as vice-captain instead. With Virat Kohli also retired, Gill might get a longer run from the BCCI to fill that vacant number 4 spot, which some suggest may go to Shreyas Iyer.

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BCCI announces India A squad and lot of hints there

Meanwhile, the BCCI has announced the India A squad for two first-class matches against England Lions and one match against the Indian team that is slated to travel to the UK next month. Abhimanyu Easwaran has been named the captain of the side with Dhruv Jurel as his deputy. Shubman Gill and Sai Sudharsan are set to join them after the end of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025.

Yashasvi Jaiswal, who is already part of the Indian Test team, has also been picked for the India A squad. Karun Nair has got another chance to show what he can do in red-ball cricket. If he performs well, he could be selected for the main team for the England series. Sarfaraz Khan, Nitish Reddy, Shardul Thakur, Ishan Kishan, and Harshit Rana are also set to travel.

All of them have played Test matches before and could be part of India’s new-look Test team in the coming months considering the retirement of stalwarts like Rohit, Kohli, and Ravichandran Ashwin. Ravindra Jadeja and Mohammed Shami are still there from the OG side of 2014-2024 but not for long.

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