BCCI Secretary Devajit Saikia dismisses Rohit Sharma retirement speculations

New Delhi: Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) Secretary Devajit Saikia dismissed speculations regarding Rohit Sharma’s retirement and clarified that there was no dispute that the Lord’s ODI against England was his last match.

There was some speculation that the third and final ODI against England at Lord’s on Sunday could be Rohit’s last match in the 50-over format. However, neither Rohit nor the BCCI have made any official statement regarding his retirement.”There is a lot of speculation in the media about Rohit Sharma’s future. I want to state unequivocally that there is no such discussion that Rohit will play his last match at Lord’s on Sunday. Rohit is a regular member of the India ODI team and will continue to represent the country as long as he is involved in the events. In other words, Lord’s ODI will not be his last match.” Saikia told ANI.

The 39-year-old made his ODI debut against Ireland in Belfast on June 23, 2007 and has already moved away from both the T20I and Test formats.

The retirement talk gained momentum during the ongoing England series where Rohit was struggling for runs. The experienced opener notched scores of 11 and 26 in the first two ODIs and has averaged 30.12 in 241 runs in eight matches this year, with a top score of 79.