Rohit Sharma.
Credit: Dave Hunt/AAP Image via REUTERS
Brisbane: Rohit Sharma sat smiling and nodding as R Ashwin announced his retirement from international cricket. After a short statement to the media, the off-spinner left the hall for the Indian skipper to field questions on his decision here on Wednesday.
Rohit has seen his contemporaries Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara depart from the team earlier, and with the exit of Ashwin, he is left with only Virat Kohli from that generation. Rohit admitted that he felt sad about his team-mates leaving one after the other.
"I have played so much cricket with him and we have shared so many memories together. When I see that all these boys are not in the team, I feel a little bit sad," But what can we do? We have always been friends and will always be. The difference will be that we won't be together on tour, but we do meet a lot."
Even as he touched upon Rahane and Pujara after an Indian scribe clubbed both of them with Ashwin, the Mumbaikar realised that the former two are yet to announce their retirements.
"By the way, Ajinkya has not retired," Rohit noted before exclaiming: "Marwayega yaar (You will get me killed)."
"And yeah, Pujara also isn't retired," he stressed when someone pointed out that the Saurashtra batter is also yet to retire.
Rohit also revealed that he came to know about Ashwin's decision during the course of the Perth Test before dwelling on what possibly could have led to Ashwin's retirement.
"Obviously I was not there for the first three or four days of the Test match, but this was in his mind since then," he began. "There are obviously a lot of things that went behind it. I am pretty sure Ash when in position will be able to answer that
"But he understands what the team is thinking, he understands what kind of combinations we are thinking and you know when we came here as well we were not sure about which spinner is going to play we just wanted to assess and see what kind of conditions but yeah, when I arrived in Perth, this was a chat we had and I somehow convinced him to stay for that pink-ball Test match and then after it just happened so that he felt that 'if I am not needed, (it's) right saying goodbye to the game'."
Rohit maintained that he had no issues with the timing of Ashwin's retirement that has come in the middle of a series.
"Some decisions are very personal and I don't think too many questions should be asked or raised. If a player has a choice, he has to be given that choice and somebody like Ashwin, who has been there for us for so many years, is allowed to make those kinds of decisions on his own and we as team-mates have to respect it. He was very sure about what he wanted to do and the team has complete backing of his thought process."