Picture Credit: X
The Indian cricket team’s struggles in England in the ongoing five-match Test series, once again reminded fans of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, the two veterans of the game who put down curtains to their Test cricket career in May 2025. Notably, while Rohit Sharma’s decision to retire from Test cricket came on Wednesday, May 7, just within the next six days, Virat Kohli also called off time on his Test career, leaving everyone in utter shock.
However, there were reports of Rohit Sharma’s retirement since long after the Indian captain had refrained from playing the fifth Test in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) 2024-25, Virat Kohli’s decision came as a surprise. While recently, during Yuvraj Singh’s foundation ‘YouWeCan’ charity gala, Kohli opened up on his retirement, senior Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) official, Rajeev Shukla recently opened up on Kohli-Rohit’s future.
This was their own decision: Rajeev Shukla on Rohit-Kohli’s Test retirement
Speaking to ANI, the BCCI Vice-President reasserted that the decision of the two cricketers to retire was their personal and not influenced by the BCCI. "I want to make it very clear once and for all. We all feel Rohit and Virat's absence, but they took the decision on their own. BCCI has a policy of never telling any player when to retire and from which format. This is on the player. This was their own decision. They took retirement on their own.”
The BCCI board member also added that the two will be available for ODIs as he stated, “We will always miss them. We consider them great batters. The good thing is they are available in ODIs." While the two veterans were set to return in the Indian colours in the ODI series against Bangladesh, but with the series now pushed back to 2026, their next appearance could be against Australia.
