‘Impact in the dressing room is gone’ – Former England skipper makes huge claim after Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli’s Test retirement

Indian cricket team will begin their Test series against England on Friday with the first match to be played in Leeds. For the first time in over a decade the team will be without Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli as well as Ravichandran Ashwin in the playing XI. Ashwin had called time on his career post the Brisbane Test match late last year. Rohit and Virat on the other hand had quit Test cricket within a week to focus on the ODI format. 

Former England skipper Alastair Cook has expressed his concerns regarding the touring side with a young skipper. Speaking on the Overlap Cricket Podcast show, Cook said “What I cant work out and will find out obviously is by taking those two really experienced players out (Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli) who have been really a bit on the downslide, is the impact they have in the dressing room is gone”

Alastair Cook also said “No matter how…when you take senior players out like that, even if they are great leaders, they might get things wrong. But no one is ever questioning those two in that change room. So now there’s an almost clean slate. One thing we know, they’re going to be so talented. They could pick, I mean, 18 batters of the same quality now”

Kapil Dev gives his views on veteran duo’s absence 

Meanwhile former India skipper Kapil Dev has given his views on the retirements of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. Speaking on Aaj Tak, the 1983 ODI World Cup winner said “Sachin Tendulkar, Sunil Gavaskar, MS Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh, and Anil Kumble aren’t there either So, there's no point thinking about who isn't around”

Kapil Dev added "Yes, they will be missed, but we need to look at the next generation and be proud of them. Rohit has done his job; Virat has done his job. They made us proud, but let's see if the next generation of players can be bigger,"