India captain Rohit Sharma's batting struggle in the just-concluded Border-Gavaskar Trophy was evident where he could manage to score just 31 runs across five innings at a dismal average of 6.20. He appeared out of sorts at the crease, struggling to cope with the relentless pressure exerted by the Australian bowling attack. Not just this, his recent form is even more glaring if we talks about his his previous three series. Across the three series he played so far, two of which were at home, Rohit scored only 164 runs in 15 innings at a shocking average of just 10.93, with one half-century score.
Rohit Sharma's two big goals before retirement
Meanwhile, amidst this challenging phase, Rohit's childhood coach, Dinesh Lad, offered words of encouragement and support. Lad while backing Rohit said that he was not the only player to experience a dip in form during the series.
Dinesh Lad also talked about Rohit's two big goals before retirement. He revealed that Rohit had the option to retire from all formats of cricket after India won T20 World Cup 2024 title. However, Rohit wants to fulfill his two major goals in remaining part of his career, which is to win World Test Championship (WTC) and ODI World Cup titles.
“I think Rohit has only two goals: first, to win the World Test Championship and second, to win the ODI World Cup. If he wanted, he would have retired from all formats (after the T20 World Cup title), but he only retired from T20 cricket," Dinesh Lad said during a conversation with IANS.
But Rohit couldn't achieve his first goal of winning World Test Championship (WTC) title in 2023-2025 cycle as India's final hopes were dashed by Australia after their Border-Gavaskar Trophy fiasco where they lost the series 1-3. Rohit's chances of winning the WTC appear slim. The next cycle's final is scheduled for 2027, and it remains uncertain whether he will still be actively playing Test cricket by then.
However, the 37-year-old remains determined to win the ODI World Cup title in 2027. Having already achieved two T20 World Cup titles, he harbors a strong desire to conquer the pinnacle of ODI cricket. India narrowly missed out on the title in 2023, suffering a heartbreaking defeat in the final.
"He is not the only cricketer who was struggling to score runs. He should play one or two domestic games to prepare for Test matches. Because of T20 cricket, the mindset of batters has changed. He is a technically sound cricketer, and against England last year he was scoring good runs. If we win, people call Rohit the best captain, but when we lose, people say he doesn’t know captaincy," Lad added.
Meanwhile Australia sealed their spot in the WTC final for the second time in a row. As the defending champions, Australia will now face South Africa at Lord's in June 2025 to defend their title. On the other and, India's hopes of reaching the WTC final were dashed. Notably, it was the first time that India failed to qualify for the WTC final.