The back-to-back retirements from Test cricket of two veterans — Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli — have left Indian cricket reeling. India is touring England for a five-Test series next month, hopefully the rescheduled IPL would end by then. The Indian cricketing establishment would have desperately hoped that they had stayed on till the England tour, given how valuable their experience in playing in English conditions would have been. But their retirement was not entirely unexpected, especially given their dismal outing Down Under last year, where Rohit dropped himself from the team given his indifferent form. Kohli too struggled for form and his technique came in for almost brutal scrutiny. The Indian Test team is now clearly at a transition stage and the selectors have no other option but to blood a few youngsters especially in the middle order. What makes the selectors’ task more unenviable is that these tough selection choices have to be made before a challenging English tour. Their first difficult task is to appoint a captain. KL Rahul, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill pick themselves as the top three batters and Rishabh Pant comes in at number seven. So that leaves three crucial middle-order spots up for grabs. There are several claimants for those places — Shreyas Iyer, Karun Nair, Rajat Patidar, Sarfaraz Khan, Sai Sudarshan and Devdutt Padikkal. Suryakumar Yadav too could be in contention. But the more important question is these youngsters’ commitment towards the longest format of cricket. Kohli’s dedication and almost manic obsession to succeed in Tests are well documented. And his numbers speak for themselves. Reared in white ball cricket, especially T20, will the next generation have the same hunger and intensity to make it in Test cricket? Trying out untested youngsters in a tough tour of England may be a huge risk, but the selectors are left with no choice. Now is the time for the Indian cricket fan to show some patience. Published on May 14, 2025