Last Updated:
Simon Katich said Test cricket wasn’t for ’37-year-old top-order players’ when asked about Rohit Sharma’s chances to make it to India’s tour of England next year.
Indian captain Rohit Sharma. (Picture Credit: AP)
Former cricketer Simon Katich took a swipe at Indian skipper Rohit Sharma for his comments in an interview during the Sydney Test of the 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Amid questions about his cricketing future after he ‘opted out’ of the Test, Rohit had declared that he was ‘not going anywhere’, irrespective of what people with ‘a mic, laptop or pen’ say.
India were still in the game at the time of the interview but an injury to stand-in skipper Jasprit Bumrah washed their hopes of defending a sub-par 162 in the final innings on Sunday. Australia chased it down with six wickets in hand to win the series 3-1 and put their hands on the trophy for the first time since 2017.
“Well, if you look at the numbers, they are damning. We saw it in this Test. It was very selfless of him to opt out of the Test. I saw in that interview, very well-spoken. There’s no doubt he has a future after he is done playing cricket in stand-up comedy because his humor was very good,” Katich said, as quoted by India Today.
Rohit had a best score of 10 in the series and could only score an overall 31 runs in five innings. In the aforementioned interview with Star Sports, Rohit had hoped to regain form in the coming months, seemingly before India’s Test tour of England in June.
However, Katich wasn’t as confident and pointed to Rohit’s age with concern.
“Only he knows whether he has the hunger and drive at 37 to go again,” the former IPL coach said. “England is not going to be an easy series. England are on their way up. They have some good young quicks coming through. Gus Atkinson and Brydon Carse are doing well.”
“I dare say that will be a tough tour if he chooses to go on it and the Indian selectors pick him, first and foremost. Those numbers are not for pretty reading. Test cricket isn’t a place for 37-year-olds at the top of the order. History suggests that, and only Rohit Sharma knows whether he has got the hunger to go on,” he said.
- Location :
Sydney, Australia
