Rohit Sharma’s Journey in Test Cricket from Debut to Retirement
Rohit Sharma’s Test cricket journey ended on 7 May 2025 as he decided to exit from the longest format of cricket. The star indian batter Rohit Sharma will lead India in only ODI cricket now as he has already ended his career in T20I cricket after the memorable win of the 2024 T20 cricket World Cup. He will remain India’s ODI team captain due to the success in the Champions Trophy 2025 in Pakistan, where he led the Indian side. Rohit Sharma’s journey in Test cricket from debut to retirement is full of records and great captaincy knocks, as he played his debut match at Eden Gardens against the West Indies in red ball cricket in November 2013. Rohit Sharma achieved several milestones in Test cricket. The Indian Test team under Rohit Sharma achieved one of the greatest winning percentages during that period. Rohit Sharma career in red-ball cricket has spanned 11 years with amazing and memorable records.
Rohit Sharma Test retirement in 2025 was his own decision due to his poor performances in the previous three series against Bangladesh, New Zealand, and Australia. His average in the last eight contests was just 10.93, where he passed fifty runs just one time. Rohit managed to score just 52 runs in two-match Test series against Bangladesh at home. No doubt, India won both the matches, but their performance was alarming. Similarly, Rohit made just 91 runs in a three-match Test series against New Zealand at home. India lost all three Test matches under Rohit’s captaincy in this series, which was held in October-November 2024. Then he scored 31 runs in the whole Border-Gavaskar Trophy series in Australia in December 2024. India lost this series by 3-1. He didn’t play in the first and last contests of the tour. He remained absent in the last contest of the series due to his bad form and performances not of the retirement plan. The Indian side was led by Jasprit Bumrah in his absence during this tour. These bad performance circumstances urged Rohit to end his career in red-ball cricket. This decision came at the time when India is planning for the 5 Test match series tour to against England in the next month 20 June 2025. The main challenging thing for selectors is who could lead the Indian side on that tour.
Rohit Sharma Test cricket journey
Rohit started his Test career at Eden Gardens, Kolkata, against the West Indies during the West Indies tour of India in November 2013. The amazing thing about that tour was that it was the farewell series of the great Indian batter Sachin Tendulkar. Rohit scored 177 runs in his debut contest, and this was the 2nd highest score by an Indian on debut after Shikhar Dhawan, who scored 187 on his debut Test. Rohit made two centuries in his debut series against WI and made 288 runs in it.
Rohit continued his Test journey by playing a series against South Africa during his side’s visit to South Africa in the same year. Rohit managed to score just 45 runs in 2 contests in this series as he was in bad form. Then he got his momentum back in the next series against New Zealand in February 2014 as he scored 72 in 120 balls in his 1st inning in the 1st Test at Auckland. Rohit made 122 runs in this 2 match series against NZ.
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India visited Sri Lanka in 2015 for a three-match Test series, and Rohit managed to score 202 in three matches, including 2 fifties. Rohit made 238 in five innings against the NZ test series at home in 2016. Rohit was given a chance in the India-Sri Lanka Test series 2017 after almost one year, and he batted well in this 3 match series. He scored 217 in just 3 innings with an outstanding average of 217, including one hundred and 2 fifties.
In the home series, Rohit came back with good form in Test cricket in October 2019 against South Africa. He was given the opportunity in the opening pair now which he proved a great decision. He scored 176 runs with 23 fours and 6 sixes in the first inning of the 1st Test against SA at Visakhapatnam under the captaincy of Virat Kohli. Rohit made 127 in the second inning of the same Test. In this way, he scored two consecutive hundreds in the same contest. The 3rd Test of India vs SA at Ranchi was very important and memorable in the career of Rohit. In this match, Rohit made his career-best score after scoring a double hundred. He scored 212 with 28 fours and 6 sixes in the first inning. In this way, he scored 4 hundreds in the same series. Rohit scored 529 in this series and was the player of the series as there was a clean sweep by India in this series.
This record showed that Rohit struggled during the early five years of his Test career, but then he came back with astonishing performances.
During the England tour of India 2021, Rohit played a fantastic knock of 161 at Chennai in the second Test against England. This was another milestone achieved by him in Test cricket. Rohit made the second-highest score of 345, averaging 57.50 in seven innings after Joe Root (368) in this series.
During the Sri Lankan team tour of India in 2022, Rohit led the men in all the whites for a comprehensive success. This was the 2 match series, and India won both contests. Another match-winning knock by Rohit was of 127 during his side’s visit to England 2021 at the Oval in the 4th Test while Kohli led the team.
Rohit became the third-highest run scorer with the huge milestone of 368 runs in 8 innings with an average of 52.57 in the series. There was another match-winning captain’s knock of 120 runs by Rohit during the 1st Test at Nagpur in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2023. India won the series by 2-1 under his leadership.
Rohit made another hundred as a captain and won the 1st Test against WI during his side’s visit to WI and USA in 2023, and also won another series as a captain. Under Rohit’s captaincy, India won one of the greatest series for India by 4-1 during the England tour of India 2024. Rohit made 131 in the 1st inning in 3rd Test of this series. Rohit made two hundreds in this series.
During September 2024, Rohit’s performance against Bangladesh touring India was not good. Although India won the series but as a captain, Rohit’s performance was under scrutiny. Rohit managed to score just 42 in 4 innings in this tour. Another major blow for India, under Rohit’s captaincy, was the clean sweep by NZ against them in October 2024 during the NZ tour of India Test series. India lost 3 Tests against NZ, and Rohit made just 91 in this series. In November 2024, Rohit missed the 1st Test in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia at Perth. This series was not great for India as they lost badly by 3-1 including Rohit’s just 31 runs in the whole series. In the 5th match, Rohit decided to sit outside due to bad form.
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The decision to sit outside at the Sydney Test on 3 January 2025 was not due to his retirement from the longest format but due to bad performance in the previous two series as a captain. But Rohit Sharma Test cricket journey ended on 7 May 2025 when he announced his retirement from red-ball cricket. The Indian Test team under Rohit Sharma was one of the great teams of this era. Here are a few top performances and records of Captain Rohit.
Rohit Sharma milestones in Test cricket
- One of the greatest records of Rohit Sharma in Test cricket was his 12 centuries, and India won all these Tests. There is no one in this format who has scored even 10 centuries, all came in wins for his side.
- 88 sixes smashed by Hitman in Test cricket, the second most by an Indian after Virender Sehwag (90)
- Rohit has the 3rd most runs in Tests in winning percentage (69.40) after Adam Gilchrist (77.77), leading the list, and Mathew Hayden (71.35)
- One of his great innings was against SA in the 2019 Test at Vishakhapatnam, where he smashed 13 sixes and these were the highest number by any player in a Test contest.
- Rohit made hundreds in his 1st two innings of his debut series against WI. In this way, he was among the 5 players who did this in Test cricket, including Yasir Hameed, Sourav Ganguly, Alvin Kallicharran, and Lawrence Rowe.
- 2716 runs by Rohit were the most by any Indian batter in the first three cycles of the World Test Championship, with an average of 41.15 after Yashasvi Jaiswal (52.88) in WTC.
- Rohit made nine centuries in Test cricket as an opener after 2019, which were the most by any opener during this period.
Rohit Sharma ended his career in red-ball cricket after 67 Tests with 4301 runs, averaging 40.57, including 12 hundreds and 18 fifties, with 212 the highest score of his career. Rohit Sharma’s journey in Test cricket from debut to retirement is a legacy for Indian rising cricketers in this era.