'Funny Test career': Michael Atherton's remark on Team India's Rohit Sharma

Rohit Sharma (Pic: File Pic)

Former England cricketer Michael Atherton feels that Team India cricketer Rohit Sharma's numbers make him successful, but not quite a stellar batsman in whites.

Speaking on the Sky Sports Cricket podcast, he said, "I think people will look at him and his best format is ODI cricket. He is going to go down as one of the greatest ODI openers, is he not? But a funny Test career. He had to wait for a long time to get in and then almost a career of two halves in Test cricket, averaging just a tick over 40 in the end with a dozen hundreds, means it is a successful record, but not quite a stellar record."

Recently, Rohit announced his retirement from the longest format of the game. His Test career concluded with 67 matches in 11 years.

Team India will now kick start its ICC World Test Championship 2025-27 cycle from June 20 onwards.

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Further, the Englishman also questioned if Rohit's retirement was completely his decision or if he got a hint that selectors were looking to drop him from the squad.

"Was that retirement completely his own decision, or did he get a sense that he's about to be pushed, or the axe was coming because there was a report, the day before the announcement from Rohit, that the selectors had decided to move on," said Atherton.

The 57-year-old former cricketer then stated that it is a bad combination for any captain if he is losing games and not getting runs as well.

"So that is speculation, we do not know, but ultimately the decision did not come as a surprise because it is a bad combination for any captain, as you know, and as I know well if you are losing games, and you are not getting any runs, and India had lost 5 out of the last 6 matches under Rohit's captaincy. Three against New Zealand and a couple in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, and his form had really tailed off, and of course, that is a bad combination for any captain," he concluded.

Representing India in 67 Test matches, the 38-year-old Rohit Sharma accumulated 4,301 runs with a highest score of 212 runs. He also has 12 tons and 18 half-centuries to his name in the longest format of the game.

(With ANI Inputs)