By Sudeep Sonawane | Opening Doorz Editorial | July 19, 2025
India is missing the batting of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma (his leadership as well) in the Test series against England. India felt their absence in the third Test at Lord’s. Gill’s men lost by 22 runs, despite KL Rahul’s (100 & 39) and Ravindra Jadeja’s (72 & 61 not out) brave efforts.
India Cricket 2G Failure: The Glaring Vacuum at Lord’s
I appear pontificating post-defeat, but India would have won the Lord’s Test with the experience and batting skills of these two senior players. Why did Kohli and Sharma retire from Test cricket when they still have many arrows in their quivers to shoot? Their decision baffles all.
Instead of playing crucial roles in this Test series, Kohli, with his wife Anushka, watched tennis at Wimbledon during the Lord’s Test. While Sharma toured Italy with his wife Ritika and kids. These two are not 40-plus cricketers with creaking joints and stiff muscles. They are certainly years away from Dads’ Ragtag Club membership!
I wonder who compelled them to retire? Did coach Gautam Gambhir write a damning appraisal? Did the short-tempered coach—he bristles for a scrap with commentators Sunil Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri, retired Pakistani cricketers and journalists—ease the duo out? Or, did they upset a senior cricket board official? Whatever the reasons, the intrigue behind their decision to retire keeps critics and fans guessing. Many Test cricketers have played beyond the age of 40. Kohli could have too.
The Unanswered Question: Why Retire Now?
Kohli watching Wimbledon and not playing Test cricket was a sad sight. At 36, he remains the fittest among the top 20 cricketers in India. He gave proof of his fitness and batting skills during IPL 2025. A top batter with 9,230 runs and 30 Test centuries with no injuries has walked away. This team has only two batters with Kohliesque calm, wait-and-watch approach to batting that Test cricket requires.
Sharma, 38, is nowhere near Kohli’s fitness level, yet his batting skills and footwork at the crease have not dwindled. He has scored 4,301 runs with 12 centuries from 67 Tests. For a talented and technically sound batsman, his stats are below par.
Stats Don’t Lie: The Combined Powerhouse
Kohli and Sharma (combined) have scored 42 centuries and 13,531 runs in Tests, forget ODIs and T20S. The 11 men who played the Lord’s Test have together scored 37 centuries and 17,206 runs. KL Rahul leads the team with 10 centuries and 3,632 runs, while Ravindra Jadeja, the oldest player at 36, has scored 3,697 runs, including four centuries and 26 half-centuries from 83 Tests.
Keeping aside the mystery of Kohli and Sharma’s retirements, the national selectors’ panel, headed by Ajit Agarkar, has included three players based on their domestic performances. Karun Nair, Sai Sudarshan, and Nishit Reddy are just flat-track Don’s of Ranji Trophy.
Ranji Dons vs Real Test Pace
Six innings of below 50 scores brutally remind Nair of the reality of Test cricket. Facing Archer’s 142kms+ pace, and the swing of Woakes and Stokes is difficult, unlike feasting on dibbly-dobby medium pacers and below par spinners in Ranji Trophy while playing for Vidarbha.
Nair scored a triple century on debut against England in Mohali in November 2016. After that record high, he went into the wilderness for eight years and four months. He is now 33 and out of his depth against blistering pace and swing. He would be happy to know he broke Mohinder Amarnath’s (debut in 1969) record of Test comeback after seven years! Unlike him, Amarnath did not waste it.
Sai and Reddy’s plight is similar to that against top-class bowlers. Reddy got the selectors’ nod because of his century against Australia in the Melbourne Test in December 2024. I am sure Agarkar and Co. must not have given much thought to Reddy’s 1,237 runs at the staggering average of 176.41 in the Vijay Merchant (under-16) Trophy in 2017-18. He had scored 441 against Nagaland. Blasting runs against novices is not a great achievement. Potentially, Smriti Mandhana could blast a century off Nagaland’s senior Ranji team!
A History of Dropped Talent & Bizarre Calls
India’s prospects in the fourth Test at Manchester starting July 23 look bleak. Their double failure at Lord’s puts Jaiswal and Gill under pressure. Rahul, Rishabh Pant, and Jadeja look determined. Washington Sundar remains a dependable ally lower down the order.
Former captain Dilip Vengsarkar this week told digital media he would replace Washington with Kuldeep Yadav. This bizarre thinking proves why India often loses Tests. We drop players who succeed, select players on Ranji Trophy performances, and give out-of-turn breaks to wild cards like T Natarajan, Vijay Shankar, and wicketkeeper K S Bharat. All three vanished.
Worse, selectors refrigerate genuine 150kms+ fast bowlers like Varun Aaron (retired, and now a commentator) and Umran Malik. Around 55 years ago, selectors dumped Bengal swing bowler Subroto Guha (RIP 2003), followed by Pandurang Salgaonkar (took 5 for 42 & 2 for 79 in the unofficial Test against Sri Lanka in 1974).
The Untouchables of Indian Cricket
The list of untouchables consists of Barun Burman, T.A. Shekhar, Raju Kulkarni, Yograj Singh, Rajinder Singh Ghai, Sunil Valson, Salil Ankola, and Vivek Razdan. All dumped without a fair trial. Fortunately, the selectors eventually gave opportunities to Javagal Srinath, Venkatesh Prasad, and Abey Kuruvilla, although it was too late.
Current fast bowler Prasidh Krishna is lucky to have been given so many opportunities, unlike the men in the list above. The Gujarat Titans’ INR 95 million buy, in IPL 2025, has a Test bowling average of 40.57. It resembles a top batsman’s average! He has taken 14 wickets in five Tests, with his best effort being three wickets for 42 runs. I hope he succeeds in the remaining two Tests of this series.
The question is, will the 2G network (Gambhir and Gill) select him?
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Also Read: Virat Kohli should stop playing favourites, and focus on cricket!