The cricketing world witnessed a deeply emotional moment in May 2025 when Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli announced their retirement from Test cricket. They have already retired from T20Is and now retiring from Test format marked the end of an extraordinary chapter in Indian cricket history. Fans, experts, and fellow players alike grappled with the realization that two of India’s greatest had finally hung up their boots.
After having witnessed the future, the clip of Sunil Gavaskar predicting India’s future in 2012 Asia Cup feels the perfect teaser to their moviesque careers. While Chasing a mammoth score of 330 against India’s arch rivals Pakistan, during a match of Asia Cup 2012, a 25-year-old Mumbai prodigy and a 24-year-old promising batter from Delhi were batting together. One of India’s greatest Cricketers, Sunil Gavaskar predicted on the commentary -‘I think we have glimpsed the future, the future of Indian batting, Rahul Dravid has just called it a day, You don’t know how long will Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman are gonna be around, But I think that is the glimpse of India’s batting future’.
The two cricketers were Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, just as Gavaskar predicted both went on to score record breaking runs for the country bringing glory to the nation with their impeccable performances across the globe. The two colossal figures had a different journey but what followed was nothing short of greatness. Rohit Sharma announced his arrival in International cricket in the inaugural T20 World Cup 2007 helping India win the trophy with his valuable contributions, including a quick 30 knock in the final against Pakistan that turned out to be the difference. Virat Kohli on the other hand was fast-tracked in the team after winning the 2008 U-19 World Cup under his captaincy. Virat later was a key part of India’s 2011 World Cup win.
Both players grew into being loved figures in Indian cricket, setting numerous records and winning multiple ICC trophies between them. Rohit has Three double centuries in ODIs and Five T20 International Centuries to his name. and holds the record for the highest individual score in ODI (264). Kohli dominated all three formats with consistency and passion, becoming the face of Indian cricket for over a decade. Rohit has 49 international centuries while Virat has 82 centuries, just second to Sachin Tendulkar’s hundred hundreds.
Together, they have contributed to four ICC trophies for India: Rohit with the 2007 T20 World Cup, Kohli with the 2011 ODI World Cup, and the duo jointly with the 2013 and 2025 Champions Trophies and the 2024 T20 World Cup. Their rivalry and camaraderie created one of the most compelling chapters in modern cricket, attracting millions of fans and generating fierce but affectionate debates between their supporters. Amidst the social media nation fighting between Rohitians and Viratians, the two greats decided to retire from both the formats together, first from the shortest format of the game during the T20 World Cup in June 2024 and then in May 2025 from the whites.
While their departure will undoubtedly leave an irreplaceable void, The question that lies with India is, Will we ever be going to replace The King and The Hitman?
The Show Must Go On
Cricket experts and Former greats of the game believe that nothing is bigger than the game, when even a God like Sachin Tendulkar had to retire, this day comes for everybody. A famous ad done by Yuvraj Singh says, ‘Till my bat is doing fine, it’s all hunky-dowry but when it stops firing then…’ The ad is a perfect testament of how everybody has to leave the game one day. But Talking about Virat and Rohit were they really just other cricketers, the answer is no. Rohit and Virat have shaped themselves into cult figures getting all the love from people across the globe. An Indian Crowd that doesn’t even turn up for an Indian home test game went berserk to watch Virat play against Railways at Arun Jaitley Stadium recently. The jam packed stadium, the twitter trends, the crazy frenzy tells a different story of the future. The internet is flooded with clips of KBC contestants, i.e. someone among you and me carrying Rohit’s picture in his wallet, one even said – ‘Bhagwan se kaun baat karta hai’.
IPL 2025 saw each day a new hero, From a 14-year-old Vaibhav Suryavanshi to Well Established legends, but the fact that despite supporting any team majority of the viewers wishes for an RCB-MI final speaks volume of what the Two have given to the spot. Rohit and Virat chose to retire together from T20 internationals during the 2024 T20 World Cup, followed by their departure from Test cricket in May 2025. This synchronized exit underscored their intertwined journeys and the void their absence will leave.
Can Be Replaced From Game, But Never From Hearts
Whole India cried alongside Virat when he broke down during the last balls of RCB winning the Trophy after 17 years. Last year we saw how devastated fans were for Rohit being sacked from MI captaincy that their love turned into anger boing the newly made captain Hardik Pandya. From billboards to breaking news, from tea stalls in small towns to skyscrapers in metros they are everywhere. They are what we truly call an enigma. It’s never about the talent but the love and the journey the nation has witnessed that makes them special. There will always be another talented cricketer breaking their records but the journey will never be the same.
The Future of Indian Cricket: Searching for Successors
Unlike the retirement of Sachin Tendulkar, which ushered in the rise of new legends, India today faces uncertainty in filling the superstar void left by Rohit and Virat. Current talents like Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, and others show promise but have yet to consistently reach the heights expected of them. The over-saturation of T20 leagues, bilateral series, and multiple formats has made it harder for fans to attach the same reverence to today’s players. In Kohli and Rohit’s time, every century was an event, every battle against Australia or Pakistan, a spectacle. Now? It’s often just another game.
Balancing Legacy with Reality
Both Rohit and Virat experienced challenges along the way. Rohit’s career was marked by a difficult phase between 2008 and 2013 before he found stability as an opener. Kohli faced form slumps after 2019 and had to work hard to maintain his fitness and consistency. Yet, their ability to adapt and overcome adversity added to their stature.
The Indian cricket team now stands at a crossroads. The game demands not only talent but also leaders who can inspire a fragmented fanbase and navigate the commercial complexities of modern cricket. Whether the current crop of players can rise to that challenge remains to be seen. As Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli bow out, the nation celebrates their monumental contributions while anxiously awaiting the emergence of the next generation who will carry forward the legacy. The journey continues, but the era of RO-KO will remain unforgettable.
Imperfectly Perfect
Both Rohit and Virat had their flaws like Rohit’s recurring fitness issues and questions over his agility in the field were talking points throughout his career. He even missed some key SENA tours because of it while Kohli, supremely fit, was at times criticized for being overly aggressive, both on and off the field, with captaincy decisions that didn’t always pay off. His abrupt removal from ODI captaincy also exposed cracks in team management dynamics during his later years. But perhaps it’s those very imperfections that made their success so relatable. They were never robotic, they were passionate, vulnerable, and always human. Their battles with form, their bounce-backs, and the emotional transparency they displayed only deepened the connection with fans.
Personality Poles Apart
The two just like their cities have been poles apart but Just like how an India needs both a bit of Delhi’s aggressiveness and Stature, it also needs a Serene and Calm Mumbai. Just as India draws strength from both Delhi’s boldness and Mumbai’s quiet resilience, Indian cricket has flourished because of both, the aggression and grandeur of a Delhi-born Kohli, and the calm, relatable grace of a Mumbaikar like Rohit, steady like the city’s local trains.