Why Rohit, Virat must Go. What Boland can teach India
- Avijit Ghosh
- TNN Dec 30, 2024, 21:05 IST IST
Both Indian batters, ageing and embarrassingly out of form, are dragging the team down. Look at, in contrast, the commitment of a journeyman Australian
In the summer of 2024, Rohit Sharma had the world at his feet. Under his leadership, India’s lingering agony of not winning a World Cup trophy since 2011 was over. But six months is a long time in the life of an ageing cricketer. Nobody knows that better than Rohit, whose woeful batting form is now a series of equally woeful jokes and memes demanding his exit across the online and offline cricket world.
As in batting, timing is a much-valued commodity in retirements. Every sportsperson wants to go out on a high, but few manage to do so. Sunil Gavaskar was an exception. 1987, the year he retired, was marked by a masterclass 96 against Imran Khan’s Pakistan on a minefield where every delivery exploded like an ill-behaved grenade. His last Test innings was among his finest. A few months later, he smashed his only ODI ton against New Zealand in the World Cup before signing off. There’s a quote attributed to batting great Vijay Merchant. “You should retire when people ask, why, and not when they ask, why not.” Gavaskar lived it.
As in batting, timing is a much-valued commodity in retirements. Every sportsperson wants to go out on a high, but few manage to do so. Sunil Gavaskar was an exception. 1987, the year he retired, was marked by a masterclass 96 against Imran Khan’s Pakistan on a minefield where every delivery exploded like an ill-behaved grenade. His last Test innings was among his finest. A few months later, he smashed his only ODI ton against New Zealand in the World Cup before signing off. There’s a quote attributed to batting great Vijay Merchant. “You should retire when people ask, why, and not when they ask, why not.” Gavaskar lived it.
