'That is what all the players work hard for...': Sachin Tendulkar's big take on Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli's absence in England Test series

Cricketing god Sachin Tendulkar opened up on Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli's Test retirement ahead of the upcoming five-Test match series against England which will start from June 20. Rohit and Virat announced their retirement from the longest format of the game on May 7 and 12, respectively.

Batting great Tendulkar agrees that Team India will face a lot of challenges in the absence of Rohit and Virat in the upcoming Test assignment and there will be ups and downs.

“There are going to be multiple challenges and it’s something that everyone looks forward to because it’s not going to be a smooth ride all the way in a five-Test series. There are going to be ups and downs, some challenging moments,” Tendulkar agrees, with a rider as quoted by Hindustan Times.

Tendulkar said that all players work hard to get prepared for these kinds of challenges. The cricketing legend believes that Shubman Gill-led India has the 'firepower' to counter the challenge in England.

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“But that is what all the players work hard for -- to prepare themselves for those difficult moments. I think the team has the firepower to counter whatever the England team is going to do. We have the experience also of players like KL Rahul, (Ravindra) Jadeja, (Jasprit) Bumrah... Rishabh (Pant) is experienced now, Shubman is experienced now. We have got these guys. We have Karun (Nair), who has been around. At the international level, he has tasted success and also played a lot of first-class cricket, county cricket here. Yashasvi (Jaiswal). All these guys are there. Sai Sudharsan has looked good. I feel we are very much there. It will be a close encounter. Tendulkar told Hindustan Times.

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The upcoming five-Test match series against England will see India kick off a brand-new era in Test cricket under Shubman Gill's captaincy. The upcoming Test series will be India's first red-ball assignment after the back-to-back retirements of Ravichandran Ashwin, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli from the longest format of the game.

India squad for England Tests: Shubman Gill (c), Rishabh Pant (wk), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair, Nitish Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana.