Rohit Sharma isn’t a bona fide great in Test cricket, unlike white-ball formats where his exploits are legendary. In ODIs, just 10 batters have scored a double hundred. Rohit isn’t just one of them but has scored 3 of these 12 double centuries. In T20Is, no one has scored more runs, hundreds or sixes than him. In Tests, Rohit holds no such records.
Rohit Sharma’s late struggles and peak
Despite an abundance of talent, Rohit’s red-ball career would disappoint many, perhaps even himself. And his performance in the last couple of months wasn’t up to par. He failed miserably in Australia, 31 runs at 6.20. But things weren’t much better at home against New Zealand, where he made 91 runs at 15.16.
But from 2019 to 2024, Rohit was perhaps India’s best Test batter. No one scored more runs than him. Only Rishabh Pant and Yashasvi Jaiswal averaged more than him. But this sudden dip in form, combined with his age, meant that it was the end for him.
Great at home, average away?
Former South African batter Daryll Cullinan, who previously called Rohit overweight and a flat-track bully, thinks that he should have retired some time ago. He thought that away from home, Rohit wasn’t great. And stats prove this as well. Rohit wasn’t even perhaps the same player away from home, but his tours to England in 2021 showed that he definitely had the pedigree to do much better than what his record sheet reads.
“Rohit’s retirement was probably long overdue in terms of Test cricket away from India. Let’s be honest about it. He hasn’t really been the player that he, throughout his career, has been at home, and we saw reluctance from him in recent Australian series to really take it on and lead from the front. So I don’t see that as being a loss for India at all,” said Cullinan.
Rohit Sharma Test record
| Matches | Runs | Average | 100s | 50s | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home | 34 | 2535 | 51.73 | 10 | 8 |
| Away | 31 | 1644 | 31.01 | 2 | 10 |
| Neutral | 2 | 122 | 30.50 | 0 | 0 |
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