Rohit Sharma the Test legacy to remain unfinished, Sydney exile adds to Hitman’s intriguing journey

MS Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh, Shahid Afridi, Michael Bevan, Gautam Gambhir are among those few individuals who adorned the ODI cricket with supreme performances but aren’t really known for elongated Test heroics. Will Rohit Sharma fall under the category of these insanely talented players who couldn’t quite crack the “Test” code? One could easily confer to this debate but it is quite easy given Rohit’s exhorbitant numbers in white-ball cricket. We will have these discussions for days incoming after all the “Indian captain” has officially dropped himself for the betterment of his side. The stakes are at an all-time high, with the Sydney Test ever-so important given the World Test Championship (WTC) final at stake.

Best in white-ball, what about Test, Rohit?

The entire eve of the fifth Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) Test was focused on: will Rohit or will he not? Well, as it turns out, he has! The Hitman, who endured his career’s worst series (by a far distant), has rightfully pressed down the button. He has sent down the “trastition” signal, dropping himself entirely from the playing XI. Now we shouldn’t expect him to make another return to Test cricket again. With India having their next Test assignment six months later in England, Rohit’s fans should consider his horror show at the Mellbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) his last in Tests.

Three double hundreds, a rollicking 2023 ODI World Cup, most (7) ODI World Cup hundreds, joint-most hundreds in T20 internationals, second-fastest to 10,000 ODI runs (by innings), most runs in T20Is (4231)— Rohit Sharma is almost untouchable in white-ball cricket. Had Virat Kohli not been there, Rohit would’ve surely been the best ODI + T20I batter India has ever produced. But in Tests, we can’t really say this.

Rohit was 144-international matches old when India handed him his long-awaited Test debut. It was the same series that saw the great Sachin Tendulkar hang up his boots after 200 Tests. Rohit hit 177 followed by a 111* at Wankhede and we all thought that was it—we have our gem 3-format player. But then came a slump. Just like the early days of his ODI career, Rohit was having trouble scoring runs in red-ball cricket. In fact, he had to wait for almost 4 years for his third Test hundred.

Rohit Sharma: 1st phase of Test career (middle-order batter)

Span	Mat	Inns	Runs	HS	Ave	100	50
Overall	67	116	4301	212	40.57	12	18
2013-2018	27	47	1585	177	39.62	3	10

After regular failures, Rohit was ousted. You might remember Rohit being part of India’s historic triumph at the BGT 2018/19 but he played just 2 games, making one fifty in 4 innings. Then he was dropped. But Virat Kohli, as captain, and Ravi Shastri, as the coach back then, knew Rohit’s true potential. He was simultaneously making an argument for being one of the best white-ball openers India has ever produced. The Kohli-Shastri era brought back Rohit with new vigour.

Rohit Sharma: 2nd phase of Test career (as opener)—Best-ever

	Mat	Inns	Runs	HS	Ave	100	50
Overall	67	116	4301	212	40.57	12	18
Best Phase	32	54	2552	212	50.03	9	7

The move proved to be a masterstoke. Murali Vijay already left and Shubman Gill and KL Rahul needed a most genuine and experienced partner at the other end. Rohit was the answer. He really broke the shackles and enjoyed his Test career’s best time as the opener. In fact, in this “purple” period for Rohit, he was the highest-run-getter for India. He started off with a sumptuous series against South Africa, becoming the first player to score two hundreds in a Test in the first game as an opener. Two games later, he notched up his career’s best score—212.

While the exploits at home were superb, one couldn’t really deny that Rohit’s best run as Test player came when he silenced critics with an absolute resolute show in England. 368 runs, 52.57 average and 866 balls faced—the best tally by an Indian in that series. The way he and KL Rahul weathered storms after storms, innings after innings was something fresh as an Indian viewer. His 127 at The Oval or 83 at Lord’s was instrumental in India almost winning the Test series. 

Most runs for India in ICC WTC (since 2019) ft. Rohit

Player	Inns	Runs	HS	Ave	100	50	0
Rohit Sharma	69	2716	212	41.15	9	8	2
Virat Kohli	77	2594	254*	36.02	5	11	7
Rishabh Pant	58	2151	146	39.83	4	12	2
Shubman Gill	57	1860	128	35.76	5	7	5
Ravindra Jadeja	56	1846	175*	37.67	3	12	4
Cheteshwar Pujara	62	1769	102*	29.98	1	15	6

Rohit Sharma: 3rd & the unwanted phase of Test career

Rohit Sharma & his Test rankings

Matches	ICC Test Batting Ranking
Before BAN Series	6
After 1st Test vs BAN	10
After 2nd Test vs BAN	15
After 1st Test vs NZ	15
After 2nd Test vs NZ	24
After 3rd Test vs NZ	26
After 2nd Test vs AUS	31
After 3rd Test vs AUS	35*
After 4th Test vs AUS	40

As far as his batting was concerned, it seemed nothing was going right at the moment for Rohit Sharma. The Indian skipper had a horrible form in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT). Across five innings, he managed to score a mere 31 runs—a tally even surpassed by Nathan Lyon and Akash Deep. But Rohit’s dip in form hadn’t just arrived in this high-octane series. It had been evident even during India’s home season, where he struggled on spin tracks. On green tops, Australian pacers found it easy to tackle him.

While an out-of-form Virat Kohli hit a century in Perth, Rohit looked out of sorts ever since he landed Down Under. Returning to the middle-order spot, Rohit didn’t look comfortable. His return to the middle order after six years turned out to be a textbook case of bad timing. Scores of 3, 6, 10, 3, & 9 have been the scores for Rohit in the series. They don’t just reflect a bad patch—they screamed that the experiment had failed.

The numbers didn’t lie. Rohit Sharma amassed only 164 runs in 15 innings in the latter half of 2024. For a player of his caliber, these stats were shockingly subpar. His struggles began in the home series against Bangladesh and New Zealand and only worsened on the bouncy tracks Down Under. All these, coupled with losses in Adelaide and Melbourne, piled up Rohit, who has seemingly announced his sayonara to the toughest format in the sport.

Mat	Inns	Runs	HS	Ave	100	50
8	15	164	52	10.93	0	1