After a shockingly poor performance in the three-match home Test series against New Zealand, where the hosts suffered a 3-0 series defeat, India lost their decade-long Border-Gavaskar Trophy after losing the five-match Test series against the hosts Australia by 3-1, despite winning the Test series opener at Perth Stadium under the stand-in captain Jasprit Bumrah.

At the end of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 in Australia, we are talking about three names who can take retirement for Test cricket. 

See Also: Hardik Pandya, Shreyas Iyer and Arshdeep Singh IN as India announce their ODI squad against England before CT 2025

Rohit Sharma

Indian captain Rohit Sharma’s place in the Test team is completely doubtful. In the last South Africa and Australia tour, Rohit scored 5, 0, 39, 16 not out, 3, 6, 10, 3, and 9. During the last England tour of India in 2024, Rohit scored two centuries and one half-century in the last three Tests, but his next home Tests scores against Bangladesh and New Zealand were 6, 5, 23, 8, 2, 52, 0, 8, 18, and 11. In the last 15 Test innings, the right-handed batter has managed an average of just less than 11.

Moreover, Rohit is also under pressure as a Test captain as his defensive strategies aren’t working, rather than these are backfiring for the Indian team. 

While Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane are returning to their familiar batting form, their valuable experiences are required in the forthcoming England tour, which will be played after the IPL 2025. 

As Jasprit Bumrah has impressed as a captain, under pressure Kohli has better captaincy experiences outside India, and a lot of Indian talented cricketers are on the line for future leadership roles, India aren’t going to miss Rohit Sharma in Test cricket. 

Virat Kohli 

To remove his name from this list, Virat Kohli has to prove himself faster. The former Indian captain knows his issue very well and is desperate to resolve it, but somehow, he is failing again and again. Apart from one century, Kohli scored 90 runs in the other eight innings in the recently concluded Australia tour with only three double-digit scores, including only one 20+ score. Most importantly, the right-handed batter can’t avoid his long-term issue of failing to handle the fourth or fifth stump deliveries. 

Before the Australia tour, Kohli was also disappointed in the home Test season, where the right-handed batter scored 20+ runs only thrice out of 10 innings, including the knock of one 70 runs and another 47. Also, his recent running between the wickets is another major concern for the team.

Well, Kohli is now getting a much-needed break from his bad form. While he is still important in the Test team, he has to work hard to bring his familiar form. Although Indian cricket fans are still hopeful, Kohli surely has very limited time.  

Ishant Sharma

Although the tall right-arm fast bowler Ishant Sharma is active in all formats of domestic cricket, he last served for the Indian Test team in November 2021 during the New Zealand tour of India.

While the Indian pacers Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, and Mohammed Siraj are dominating in all formats, Mukesh Kumar, Harshit Rana, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Navdeep Saini, etc. have impressed in their early international career, the 36-year-old Ishant Sharma is unlikely to return to Test cricket.