Former Indian batter Sanjay Manjrekar believes India has successfully moved on from Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma’s Test retirement. Manjrekar acknowledged that the duo’s retirement was the loss of two senior players but at the same time, noted that they were not contributing enough with the bat to the team.

Meanwhile, Kohli amassed 9230 runs in 123 Test matches at an average of 46.85, including 30 centuries. In the last 69 Test innings since 2020, Kohli has managed only 2028 runs at an average of 30.72, including just three centuries.

On the other hand, 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. 

“Rohit Sharma was averaging 10 in the last two series that he played and Virat Kohli was averaging 30 in the last five years. So they were perhaps not easy to replace, but it wasn’t like it was a huge loss,” Manjrekar said on JioHotstar.

“It was a loss of two very senior players, but not a loss of contribution, because they weren’t contributing as much,” Manjrekar added.

England’s former batter Jonathan Trott concurred with Manjrekar and said England might not have been able to make such a smooth transition in the batting department if Joe Root had announced his retirement.

“If you’re taking the Joe Root out of the side or taking two experienced players like India have had to retire recently, it would be a very, very different scenario. I think India have given a great account of themselves,” Trott said while speaking on the same platform.

“They’ve kept the series alive and it’s certainly interesting to see the mood in the bus on the England bus when it goes down to London compared to the Indian bus on the way down to London,” Trott added.

The fifth and final Test match between England and India will be played at the Kennington Oval, London, from 31st July onwards.