Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli’s exit from Tests unnatural? Ex-star claims “forced surrender”

Former Indian cricketer Robin Uthappa has cast aspersions on the exit of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma from Tests, dubbing it as ‘not natural’. The veteran duo took the world by surprise in May when they announced their decisions to retire from the longest format of the game abruptly. Ro-Ko are currently active only in the ODI format, having also retired from T20Is after the World Cup in 2024.

Ro-Ko were forced to retire from Tests?

In a video on his YouTube channel, Uthappa claimed that Rohit and Virat retiring from Tests definitely did not look like a natural exit. He said that while it was on the duo to open up on the nature of their abrupt decision to retire, it certainly didn’t look natural and wondered if it was a forced surrender.

“I don’t know if it was a forced surrender, but it definitely didn’t seem like a natural exit. What the truth is, they themselves will have to share in their own time. But I don’t think it was natural,” Uthappa opined.

Rohit and Virat’s decision to hang their boots in the longest format of the game was quite unexpected. After a poor run in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Australia last year, the duo decided to return to Ranji Trophy after a long time in a bid to prolong their Test careers. However, in May, they decided to call it time on their Test careers mysteriously while Shubman Gill was named the new captain before the series against England.

“When Rohit was not scoring runs in Australia, I felt that he should take a break for six months and work on his fitness. I had no doubt in my mind that he would score runs,” Uthappa added.