IPL Postponement and Two Major Retirements: What Just Happened?

Image via BCCI

It's Been a chaotic week in the cricketing landscape, with two legends retiring within days of one another and the Indian Premier League implementing safety protocols with a temporary suspension. Let’s look through each of the major headlines this week.

IPL Suspension

The Indian Premier League was suspended immediately on May 9, due to conflicts between India and Pakistan. The extremely popular domestic tournament is set to resume “soon,” according to some BCCI reports, with teams returning to training. The suspension was implemented as a precaution for the safety of all players, as the ECB and CSA offered to host the money-making league. However, these offerings fell through when the BCCI decided to keep the matches in India following a ceasefire between the neighboring countries, India and Pakistan.

Rohit Sharma's Test Retirement

Rohit Sharma, the India captain in two of the three formats of international cricket, disclosed his retirement on Instagram: “Hello everyone, I would like to share that I am retiring from Test cricket. It's been an absolute honour to represent my country in whites. Thank you for all the love and support over the years. I will continue to represent India in the ODI format.” This announcement came after a disappointing series loss in Australia for the Blues, with most Indian batters struggling for consistency and high scores against the high-quality Australian bowling lineup on grassy wickets.

The decorated and successful Indian captain began his Test career in 2013, amassing 4,301 runs in 67 total matches at an average of 40.6. While captaining in 24 Test matches, Sharma recorded a 50 percent win percentage after taking over from Virat Kohli in 2021.

Virat Kohli’s Potential Test Retirement

Just a few days after the current India captain’s Test retirement, Virat Kohli, one of India’s finest cricketing talents, announced his willingness to retire to the BCCI. Kohli’s potential retirement comes amidst a stretch of sub-par scores in recent years. Since the pandemic, Virat Kohli has reached centuries in Test matches on three occasions, the most recent in the first match against Australia in Perth, after which his runs dipped significantly–his final total in the series a mere 190 runs.

Kohli has yet to formally announce his retirement, which has led legendary cricketer Brian Lara, among others, to call for him to continue his Test career, while Michael Vaughan has encouraged India to give Kohli the captaincy to appease him and prolong his inevitable retirement from the format. Once averaging well above the 50-run mark, Kohli’s dip in form has seen his Test average decline to 46.9, with 9,230 runs in 123 matches for India.

The double blow of Sharma and Kohli potential retirements leaves a gaping hole for the Indian management to address with a vital Test series in England in the coming month.