'It was already settled that he will play India A matches but suddenly to hear that he won't be playing red-ball cricket that was surprising.'
It has been a dramatic week in Indian cricket with not one, but two stalwarts called time on their Test careers with captain Rohit Sharma announcing his retirement last Wednesay, May 7, before Test legend Virat Kohli hanging up his boots in the longest format of the game on Monday, May 12.
The dual retirements have not sat well with Indian cricket fans and are now crying conspiracy after Delhi Ranji coach Sarandeep Singh's telling interview.
Speaking to Star Sports, Sarandeep said: 'I spoke to Virat a few weeks ago and asked if he'd play county cricket to prepare for the England series. He said he would play 2 India A matches in England as preparation.for the Test matches. It was already settled that he will play India A matches but suddenly to hear that he won't be playing red-ball cricket that was surprising.'
'Because he has no fitness issues. His form is also not so bad, we have high expectations of him. He may have not scored 4-5 centuries that we expect from him when he tours Australia, but even though he scored one century (in Perth), he was not satisfied.
'He was telling me during the Ranji Trophy (in February) that I want to score 300-400 runs in England, score 4-5 hundreds like in 2018.'
In a recent chat on former Australian captain Michael Clarke’s podcast, Beyond 23, Rohit had talked about his excitement in leading an attack with Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami and Mohammed Siraj in England and added: 'I'll try my best on the England tour.'
What's interesting is now fans are questioning the reasons and persons behind their retirements.
'Kohli told his Delhi Ranji coach he’s well prepared for the England tour and aims to score 500+ runs and he’d try for 3–4 centuries, He never said anything about retiring Whatever happened bts whoever caused this I wish those fker never find peace,' wrote one DilipVK18 on X.
Another fan, quoting the interview wrote on X: 'Kohli texted Sarandeep (Delhi Ranji Coach) that he wanted to play the Eng series and would even play india a matches for practice. But BCCI and Gambhir forced him to retire.'
Another fan going by the handle @bethell tweeted: 'Whatever has happened here, and whoever it is, hope he rots in hell.'
'Don't know why people are blaming gambhir maybe he was involved too. But this decision is majorly taken by Ajit Agarkar that I'm sure of. The day Rohit retired Agarkar started his planning to somehow phase out Kohli. Gambhir wanted Kohli but wasn't convinced about Rohit.'
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