In a Test career that started way back in 2013, only came to an end in 2025. Yes, we are talking about, now the ex-India Test skipper Rohit Sharma, who announced his retirement from the format only a couple of hours back. In this period, the 38-year-old veteran went on to play 67 Tests, scored 4301 runs, at an average of 40.57, with 12 tons and 18 fifties.
Rohit Sharma’s Career At a Glance
So, where does one rate him as a Test batter? Well, statistically speaking — the numbers at which he ended, he is no more than a 7, but then his 12-year career can easily bifurcated in three parts — the first one being, where shone in patches, was never a regular in the Test side. Then under coach Ravi Shastri, he tasted humongous success after being elevated to opener’s role; and then of course, the last period of his career, where he not only lost two back-to-back series, but as a batter too, was nothing more than a sitting duck for the bowling team.
From 2013 to 2018
Anyways, let’s get started with the period 2013-2018. In this period, he played 27 matches, where he only scored 1585 runs and averaged 39. That too was because of the three tons he got — with the first two coming in his first two inning of his career — 177 and 111. That was also the time he used to bat at No. 5 & No. 6 mostly. He was getting out cheaply way too often, despite showing promise. In short, he wasn’t doing justice to his immense talent. This period, in all fairness was only 6/10.
From 2019 to 2023 End
The second period is between 2019 to the end of 2023. Here, Rohit was just the most successful Indian Test batter, even better than Virat Kohli.. had started to lead India too full-time in the middle of this period, and runs were coming nice and easy; India was winning. In 26 Tests, he went on to accumulate 2097 runs at an average of 51, striking 7 tons and six fifties. Count only one duck here. And 9/10 would be totally justified here.
2024 – Final Nail in the Coffin
The last period, from the end of 2023 to 2025, is perhaps the lowest point of Rohit the Test batter. Even though he got two tons vs England last March, but then, in between and post that series, he was just poor. In the Australia series, he had only scored 31 runs in three Tests at an average of 6. Overall, in this period, he played 14 Tests and scored only 619 runs at an average of 24. Two tons is what brought his average in 20s, or it may well have been in 10s. Here he would only be rated 3.5/10.
These string of failures is what brought about this decision of retirement too. In fact, this was no ordinary failure, but one that saw only one fifty plus score in 15 Test innings.
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