Manoj Tiwary opined that both Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma had no plans for retiring from Test cricket, but they were forced to bid farewell to the format due to the bad environment in the team. The two
stalwarts of Indian cricket retired from the longest format of the game during the 2025 edition of the Indian Premier League.
While Rohit retired on May 7, Kohli followed suit on May 12, leaving a massive void in the Indian Test team ahead of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy. In the tour of England, Shubman Gill took charge as captain of the Test team, replacing Rohit, and he dropped down to No. 4 in the batting order, a position that had been held by Kohli since Sachin Tendulkar's retirement.
While India managed to level the series 2-2 in England and whitewashed the West Indies subsequently, their defeat in the first Test against South Africa at Eden Gardens, Kolkata, has drawn them severe flak from fans as well as experts. Head coach Gautam Gambhir had blamed the team's transition phase as the reason behind the loss. However, Tiwary said that transition cannot impede a team like India, where there is an abundance of talented players vying for spots in the team.
He also mentioned that Rohit and Kohli were phased out from the team due to unwarranted transition despite their willingness to play red-ball cricket.
“This whole 'transition phase' talk—I don’t agree with it. India doesn’t need a transition. New Zealand or Zimbabwe need transition. Our domestic cricket is full of talented performers waiting for chances. Because of this unnecessary transition, our star players—like Virat and Rohit—who wanted to keep playing Test cricket and protect its sanctity, slowly stepped back because of the atmosphere created around them,” Tiwary told India Today.
“You cannot blame players' technique after losing. As a coach, your job is to teach, not to blame. If the batters didn’t have solid defence, why weren’t they trained before the match? When he played, Gambhir himself was a good player of spin, so he should teach more. The results aren’t in India’s favour,” he added.
