Rohit Sharma: 2027 ODI World Cup looks a bridge too far for the Hitman

A day after Rohit Sharma’s retirement from Test cricket, which is not as much of a surprise as it seems, it’s clear that time is almost up on his international career. For now, the Hitman will continue to lead India in ODIs, but given his age and match-fitness, there are a lot of ifs and buts on if he can have a final hurrah at the 2027 World Cup.

It was almost on a Dhoni-esque note that India’s Test and ODI skipper announced his decision in an Instagram message last evening: ‘’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.’’ A photo of his Test cap accompanied the post, lending it a degree of poignancy.

The timing of the announcement, meanwhile, is not really surprising if one recalls a moment of flippancy during Rohit’s chat with the broadcasters after he chose to sit out the fifth Test in Sydney last January following a nightmarish series with the bat Down Under.

Replying to the buzz about his retirement, Rohit said he would not take such a decision based on what TV pundits or media said, albeit in his own nonchalant style. ‘’I am a responsible guy, father of two kids and will take a decision at an opportune moment,’’ he said, much to the amusement of the anchors.

As things panned out, he didn’t play a single Test after that, leaving behind a trail of three extremely forgettable outings in as many series between mid-2024 and early-2025. Just ponder this: in 15 innings over eight Tests against Bangladesh, New Zealand at home and the Australians Down Under, his pickings were a pathetic 164 runs at an average of 10.93, and one half-century. In Australia, he gave the first Test a miss due to the birth of his second child, and didn’t play the last one, totalling 31 from five innings with a highest score of 10.

The figures are telltale and the manner of his dismissals showed he was feeling out of sorts while batting in red-ball cricket — often being dismissed while trying to hit his way out of trouble. He looked two different batters in Tests and white-ball cricket, and the Times of India reported that he was still keen to visit England as a player and test himself for the first two Tests, but neither head coach Gautam Gambhir nor the selectors were agreeable to such an experiment in what would be the opening series of the new World Test Championship (WTC) cycle.

Former BCCI president Sourav Ganguly, who played a key role in elevating Rohit to a captain’s role at a rather later stage of his career, sounded objective: ‘’A right decision from Rohit as he was finding it difficult in red-ball cricket.’’

The question that begs to be asked is: now that he is done with Tests and T20Is, the later being a forte of his, how realistic is the 38-year-old’s aspiration of playing one more 50-over World Cup?

As recently as early-March, Rohit had brushed aside any rumours of international retirement at the final press conference after winning the ICC Champions Trophy in Dubai. While there was always a lingering question mark over his Test future, media reports suggested that he could get down to a rigorous fitness regimen to get back in shape and prolong his career with an eye on the next 50-over showpiece in South Africa.

However, there are still more than two years to go for that, and one can sense that the taciturn Gambhir has already begun his ‘mission transition’ in Indian cricket. It’s difficult to see the big guns Rohit and Virat Kohli figuring in the event as of now, so he can only keep his fingers crossed.

Asked whether they could be part of the plans for 2027, Gambhir, however, said in a recent chat show: “Till the time they are performing, they should be a part of the team. When you start and when you end is your individual decision. No coach, no selector, no BCCI can tell you when you should call it quits. If you perform, then why 40, you can jolly well play till 45, who’s stopping you?”

Meanwhile, a big shoutout to one of India’s white ball giants, who may not have been a Test great but turned out to be a late bloomer in Tests to end with 4,301 runs from 67 Tests – most of which came as an opener!