Rohit Sharma, who recently announced his retirement from Test cricket, said he faced a lot of "unnecessary criticism" during his career.

Rohit is India's ICC T20 World Cup and Champions Trophy-winning captain. He is known for his lazy elegance in white-ball cricket, which propelled him to greatness in the ODI and T20 formats.

However, he could not replicate the same success in Test cricket. While Rohit made his T20I and ODI debut for India in 2007 - he was even part of India’s T20 World Cup-winning team in South Africa - his debut in the Test whites was long delayed.

After missing out on the chance to make his Test debut in 2010 due to a freak injury, Rohit finally got the much-desired opportunity in 2013. He smacked the West Indies bowlers to score 177 on debut at the Eden Gardens, and followed it up with an unbeaten 111 at the Wankhede.

However, his Test career never truly flourished for several reasons - chief among them being the frequent shuffling of his position in the batting order. The same ease and the extra second he seemed to enjoy while playing white-ball cricket were often missing in the longer format.

In the ODI cricket, Rohit scored 11,168 runs from 273 matches at an average of 48.76, including the highest individual ODI score of 264. In Test cricket, he played 67 matches, scoring 4,301 runs, with 12 centuries and a highest score of 212.

But Rohit, now 38, is no longer worried about criticism. "I have faced a lot of criticism, even unnecessary criticism,” Rohit told Times of India. “I cannot say that criticism does not affect anyone.

It might affect some, and not others. But for me, it does not anymore. With time, you learn to handle it. For any sportsperson, facing criticism is part of the journey. But what I don’t support is unnecessary criticism.”

Rohit, who bowed out of T20I cricket earlier, will now ply his trade only in ODI cricket. The swashbuckling batter also talked about his so-called vulnerability against left-arm seamers.

“So much has been said about me getting out to left-arm seamers. Fine, it happens. That’s part of the game. But if you go around defending every comment, you’re just wasting your time. Defending myself is not my job,” Rohit added.

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