Has Test cricket viewership dropped after Virat Kohli & Rohit Sharma’s retirement? | CricTracker

Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma are two pillars of Indian cricket in the modern era. Their contributions across formats will be etched in the hearts of cricket fans forever. 

Kohli played 123 Tests, amassing 9230 runs at an average of 46.85 while Rohit played 67 Tests, scoring 4301 runs at an average of 40.58. Kohli, who led India to the inaugural World Test Championship (WTC) final in 2021, remains the most successful Indian Test captain, while Rohit guided the Asian giants to the finals of the second WTC cycle.

Rohit led India in the 2024-2025 Border-Gavaskar Trophy. However, he did not score too many runs with the bat. He had been going through a lean patch in red-ball cricket since a considerable period of time. Similarly, Kohli’s performances in Tests were not up to his standards in the last few years.

The duo shocked the cricket fraternity by announcing their Test retirement midway through the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025. Rohit announced his decision on May 7, and Kohli followed suit, making his announcement on May 12. This started a transition phase in the Indian cricket team, as Shubman Gill was named the Test captain ahead of the 2025 Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy.

It goes without saying that Rohit and Kohli’s fandom is surreal around the world and expectedly, many emotional supporters took to social media to mention that they would not be watching the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy with their favourite stars not in action.

Moreover, not many gave the young Indian team a chance against the strong England lineup at home. However, Shubman and Co. punched above their weight and gave England a run for their money, as they drew the series 2-2, with all five games going into the last day, showing how closely matched the two teams were. 

Fans were blown over by the performances of Shubman, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep and Prasidh Krishna. England fought hard as well, with Joe Root slamming one record after another and Ben Stokes showing tremendous guts and determination.

The attendance in all five Tests was impressive as spectators flocked to the stadium each day to witness the pulsating action, while the linear and digital viewership was quite staggering too, reflecting how much fans enjoyed the action between two top teams in world cricket.

While the absence of Kohli and Rohit briefly dissuaded the fans, the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy was a reminder that men may come and men may go, but cricket will go on forever.

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