Why 2025 feels like 2012 as Kohli, Rohit retire from Test cricket

In many ways, 2025 feels eerily similar to 2012. Thirteen years ago, the Indian cricket team’s calamitous tour of Australia ended the careers of Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman. The stalwarts, with vastly contrasting batting styles, bowed out of international cricket after a humbling series Down Under.

 

The halo around India’s golden generation had begun to fade. The team was at a crossroads. Their retirements created a void that seemed difficult to fill. Indian cricket was forced to rebuild, recalibrate, and reassess.

 

Fast forward to 2025, and a similar sense of transition hangs over the Indian cricket team. Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, the last two vestiges from the previous era, have retired from the game’s longest format after an arduous Test series in Australia. 

 

Curiously, Australian tours appear to have a decisive role in concluding the careers of Indian batting greats.

 

Much like in 2012, this team under coach Gautam Gambhir is searching for a new identity, fresh leadership, and a bevy of young stars to carry forward their rich legacy.

 

Back then, it was Kohli who stepped up and heralded a tectonic shift in Indian cricket. Today, the question looms large: Who will seize that mantle?

 

Shubman Gill, K L Rahul, and Rishabh Pant are some of the worthy contenders. In recent times, each of them has been grappling with their own inner demons.

 

Gill is hailed by many as the worthy successor to Kohli at No 4. There are many in the Board of Control for Cricket in India who believe that the 25-year-old is ready to take charge of this team in the throes of transition. But the stylish batsman from Punjab is battling inconsistent form and technical flaws that have clipped his Test career from soaring.

 

In the 2024-25 Border Gavaskar Trophy, Gill managed to score only 93 runs in five innings. In 22 Tests, he has registered only two centuries. Gill’s primary flaw is his slow weight transfer onto the front foot, which makes him late to deliveries bowled by fast bowlers who cleverly exploit the bat-pad gap.

 

Like Gill, Pant endured a horrendous Australia tour, and his indifferent batting form has trickled into the Indian Premier League (IPL) this season. Rahul, who made his Test debut more than a decade ago, has shown his nous and swagger in this IPL, but he needs to bring consistency to his long-form game.

 

Perhaps, the time is also ripe to try someone like Karun Nair. The Karnataka batsman has been scoring in the domestic circuit like a man possessed.   In an ideal world, Jasprit Bumrah, the talismanic fast bowler with the skill and experience, is the ideal candidate to steer this team through the tricky transition phase. But the selectors are worried about his fitness, with many doubting whether Bumrah’s body can withstand the five Test matches in England scheduled in less than two months. As the selectors look to cotton-wool Bumrah, Ravindra Jadeja, the 80-Test veteran, and Kohli’s illustrious batchmate, also looks jaded. In many ways, his career, too, seems closer to the end.

 

In such a scenario, the onus lies on Gambhir to take the lead, instil the virtues of playing Test cricket in a new generation of players raised on an IPL diet. In essence, Gambhir has a stiff task ahead of him: Turn boys into men. After the ill-fated Australia sojourn early this year, Sharma provided a glimpse into Indian cricket’s immediate future.

 

“There are many boys. I want them to understand the importance of cricket first and understand the importance of this place. I know they should be given responsibility. But let them earn it,” Sharma told Star Sports.

 

If 2012 taught us anything, it is that periods of churn often give rise to greatness. Kohli, along with Cheteshwar Pujara and Ravichandran Ashwin, blossomed into virtuosos, taking their team to new heights.

 

India will miss Kohli’s passion, his searing intensity, and Sharma’s calming elder brotherly presence.

 

Amid this glaring void, Gill, Rahul, Pant, and the irrepressible Yashasvi Jaiswal will now have a chance to script the next glorious chapter in Indian cricket.