Michael Atherton opens up on Rohit Sharma’s Test retirement, says he was about to be pushed

Former England captain Michael Atherton feels Rohit Sharma retired from Test cricket as pressure was building up on him. The former England opener said the selectors must have had a serious discussion with Rohit and thus he was forced into retirement.

Rohit played 67 Tests during an 11-year career, leading in 24 of them since taking over the reins of the team from Virat Kohli in 2022. He ends his career with a total of 4301 runs, including 12 centuries.

However, in the last 15 Test innings, Rohit was averaging 10.9 and wasn’t batting at his best. Rohit could only manage 31 runs in three Test matches against Australia in the Border-Gavaskar trophy 2024-25 at an average of 6.20 and also stood down in the final Test against Australia at Sydney, casting a doubt on his Test future.

“Was that retirement completely his own decision, or did he get a sense that he’s about to be pushed or the axe was coming because there was a report, the day before the announcement from Rohit, that the selectors had decided to move on,” Atherton said on Sky Sports.

“So that’s speculation, we don’t know, but ultimately the decision didn’t come as a surprise because it’s a bad combination for any captain, as you know, and as I know well if you’re losing games, and you ain’t getting any runs, and India had lost 5 out of the last 6 matches under Rohit’s captaincy. Three against New Zealand and a couple in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, and his form had really tailed off and of course, that’s a bad combination for any captain,” the former England captain added.

Atherton added that Rohit had a successful record in Test cricket, but at the same time said it is not a stellar record.

“I think people will look at him and his best format is ODI cricket. He’s going to go down as one of the greatest ODI openers, isn’t he? But a funny Test career. He had to wait for a long time to get in and then almost a career of two halves in Test cricket, averaging just a tick over 40 in the end with a dozen hundreds means it’s a successful record, but not quite a stellar record,” Atherton said.

Rohit made an impressive Test debut against the West Indies at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata in 2013 as he scored 177 and thus bagged Player of the Match award as India registered an innings and 51 runs win.