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Adam Gilchrist sensed Rohit Sharma’s Test retirement during the Sydney Test after a poor run, scoring 152 runs in 13 innings.
Rohit Sharma bids his goodbye to Test cricket. (AFP Photo)
Former Australian cricketer Adam Gilchrist has said that he sensed that Rohit Sharma was about to announce his Test retirement when he spoke to the latter in Sydney, during the fifth and final Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, from which the captain had ‘dropped’ himself due to poor form.
Rohit has had a horrid run in Tests since September last year, scoring 152 runs in 13 innings at a dismal average of 11.69.
The average fell well below six in the three games he played in the tour of Australia, managing only 31 to record the worst-ever batting figures by a visiting skipper in Australia.
“It’s an odd thing to say, but I’m thrilled for him. Particularly if it’s the latter option that you said there. And I think it would be that he’s made the decision. I sensed at Sydney, talking to him in and around the Sydney Test, when he left himself out or whatever the case was there,” Gilchrist said while speaking on Cricbuzz.
“I just thought, talking with him, I felt like that’s the end of the road for him. He was going to allow himself time to go away and the Champions Trophy and see how he’s going and stuff,” Gilchrist said.
Meanwhile, Rohit’s Test retirement has left his long-time India and Mumbai teammate Ajinkya Rahane shocked.
Caught in the heat of his Indian Premier League team Kolkata Knight Riders’ must-win game against the Chennai Super Kings at the Eden Gardens on Wednesday, Rahane was unaware of Rohit’s retirement from Tests on the same day.
The veteran batter, who shares a close bond with the India ODI captain from their Mumbai days, said that he would reach out to him soon.
The 36-year-old Rahane, a much-admired Test specialist who has been out of favour for two years, has refused to give up on his dream of making a comeback to the national set-up.
Rohit will be seen in action when the Mumbai Indians take on the Punjab Kings on Sunday, May 11, in Dharamsala.
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