NEW DELHI :India captain Rohit Sharma announced his retirement from test cricket on Wednesday but said he will continue playing One-Day Internationals which have been his strong suit.
The 38-year-old had quit Twenty20 Internationals immediately after leading India to their second 20-overs World Cup title in West Indies last year.
“Hello everyone, I would like to share that I am retiring from Test cricket,” Rohit posted on Instagram.
“It’s been an absolute honour to represent my country in whites. Thank you for all the love and support over the years. I will continue to represent India in the ODI (One Day International) format.”
Jasprit Bumrah, Rohit’s deputy in the test squad, led the side in two tests in Australia last season in Rohit’s absence but the Indian cricket board (BCCI) may not task a fast bowler with full-time captaincy given their injury-prone nature.
India will kick off their test season with a five-match series in England beginning in Leeds on June 20.
A late bloomer in the long format, Rohit retires with 4,301 runs including 12 hundreds from 67 tests with an average of 40.57.
Rohit is a 50-overs stalwart with three 200-plus scores, including a 264 against Sri Lanka, which remains the highest individual score in men’s ODIs.
An elegant right-hander when on song, Rohit could not reach the same height in test cricket though and had just one hundred in his last 19 innings.
His prolonged run drought forced the India captain to take the drastic step of dropping himself from a Sydney test against Australia earlier this year.
Rohit led India to the final of the 50-overs World Cup in 2023 and also captained them to their Champions Trophy victory earlier this year.
“Thank you, Captain. End of an era in whites…” the BCCI wrote on X.
(Additional reporting by Pearl Josephine Nazare in Bengaluru; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)