Has Rohit Sharma played his last test cricket match for India already?

Rohit Sharma didn’t play in the fifth test against Australia in Sydney.

It’s not clear who pulled the strings in the Indian dressing room during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) 2024-25 – whether it was the head coach Gautam Gambhir who told the skipper of his decision, or the captain himself decided it’s enough – but if the Melbourne test was Rohit Sharma’s last test cricket match of his career, it was a sombre note to go out from the longest format of the game after being at his best in the recent years.

On the eve of the Sydney test, it became clear that Rohit would not feature in the fifth test of the series which was a must-win for India in order to retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy and keep their chances alive of reaching a third consecutive ICC World Test Championship (WTC) final.

Trailing the series 2-1, and in a must-win territory, with Shubman Gill, one of India’s best batsmen this year, on the bench, the walls came closer on Rohit’s place in the test side, and it seems on his career as well.

Jasprit Bumrah, the stand-in skipper who had led India to a memorable win in Perth, said at the toss in Sydney that “Our captain [Rohit Sharma] has shown his leadership as well. He’s opted to rest in this game. So that shows that there’s a lot of unity in our team. There’s no selfishness. Whatever is in the team’s best interest, we’re looking to do that.”

Rohit opted to “rest” is the funny thing here, and simply not conceivable. If anybody deserved a “rest” in the Indian team, it was Bumrah himself, who’d bowled the most overs in the first four tests across both teams.

Nonetheless, it’s clear that either Rohit’s been told to sit out the Sydney test or he voluntarily opted out – which would have been the more clear wording – owing to his poor form. Whoever called the shots of Rohit’s axing was actually thinking for the “best interest” of the team.

Poor form is an understatement here. It’s actually been disastrous. He’s find it difficult to middle the ball on this Australian tour, having managed only 31 runs in five innings while batting both in the middle-order and as an opener.

And this horrendous form began with the home season against Bangladesh and New Zealand, where he managed only one fifty across five tests.

In 15 innings since the home season, Sharma has scored 164 runs at an average of just 10.93 with only one score of over 30.

Has Rohit Sharma played his last test cricket match for India already?

Coming to what about Rohit’s test career. To simply put it: it’s all but over, and only an official announcement awaits. India’s next test match, if they don’t qualify for the ICC WTC 2023-25 final, is in June 2025 in England, by when Rohit Sharma will be of age 38. With an average of less than 11 in his last eight test matches, and him being clearly way past his peak form and age, the selectors are not expected to pick him for the England tour, which will be part of the next ICC WTC cycle.

The Melbourne test in December 2024, in all likelihood, was Rohit’s last in test cricket.

In test cricket, Rohit will be remembered for his body of work as an opener from 2019 to 2024. As an opener, he scored 2697 runs at an average of 42.80 with nine centuries. He played a a few outstanding knocks in challenging conditions at both home and away against England in 2021.

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