Former India captain Virat Kohli soon followed Rohit Sharma's footsteps in announcing his retirement from Test cricket with immediate effect as India gear up to play a five-match Test series against England, starting June 20, at Headingley, Leeds. This will commence India's World Test Championships campaign for the 2025-27 cycle. While Kohli retired on Monday, May 12, 2025, Rohit, who who still the Test captain, retired on Wednesday, May 7, 2025. While both retirements came as a surprise to many, it leaves India in a spot of bother, with both experienced batters calling time on their respective Test careers.

Social media was not pleased with this and started to question the chairman of the BCCI's selection committee, Ajit Agarkar, and head coach Gautam Gambhir's role in both the retirements, with many suggesting that they are ones behind the sudden exit of the stalwarts of Indian cricket.

"Ajit Agarkar & Gautam Gambhir's inclusion is the worst thing that ever happened to BCCI," said a user on X, while another opined, "Kohli was very good in Test cricket during Dravid's tenure, failed cricketer Gambhir ruined everything."

Sportsnow cannot independently verify those claims, and understands that the BCCI did try to speak to both the cricketers in a final attempt to change their decision, but it is learnt that they had already made up their minds. It is to be noted that neither Rohit nor Kohli was in great form in the red-ball format.

Rohit averaged 6.20 in Australia and was forced to drop himself in the final Test in Sydney. In the series before that against New Zealand, Rohit averaged 15.16 at home. Kohli, on the other hand, scored 93 in three Test matches against the Kiwis, at an average of 15.50, and in Australia, he could only manage 190 runs in five Test matches at an average of 23.75, which includes a century in Perth.

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