India skipper and batting maestro Rohit Sharma struggled big time in the recently concluded five-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test series where he just averaged a shocking 6.2 with the bat and managed only 31 runs in five innings. His waning dominance with the bat hurt India dearly in the series as they went down by 1-3 to lose the Border-Gavaskar Trophy for the first time in over a decade. 

Rohit found it very difficult to get his feet moving against a hostile Aussie pace attack. He never looked in total control of his shots and the lack of confidence was clearly evident throughout the entirety of the series.  Barring this series, his form becomes a particular source of concern when we look at his record in the previous three series. Across the three series he played so far, two of which were at home, Rohit scored at a dismal average of 10.93 and could only manage 164 runs in 15 innings, with one half-century score.

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Rohit Sharma's childhood identifies two big goals before retirement

Rohit's childhood coach, Dinesh Lad explains that the 37-year-old has two unfulfilled goals which he desires to accomplish before his official retirement. He claims that Rohit had the opportunity to hang his boots after India's triumphant T20 World Cup title win in 2024 but chose not to do so. According to Dinesh, Rohit has his eyes set on winning the World Test Championship (WTC) and the ODI World Cup for his country. 

“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."

Under him, India made it to the 2021-2023 WTC Final but were blown away by Australia in a fairly one-sided affair. And following a 1-3 hammering down under, India's chances of making it to their third consecutive WTC final are all but over. Rohit even came mighty close to winning the ODI World Cup in 2023 but were outclassed by Travis Head's masterclass century in the final. However, the 37-year-old remains determined to win the ODI World Cup title in 2027.

What's up next for Rohit and India?

A poor show in Australia has raised doubts on Rohit's future in Test cricket. Time seems to be running out for the batting legend. However, not all is over for the Indian batting legend in the white-ball format. The Mumbai-born batter will lead his side in the home white-ball series against England just before the Champions Trophy. Rohit is also expected to lead the Men in Blue in the marquee event which starts on February 19.