‘What happens to Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli fanatics when they retire’: Poignant question attracts quirky answers

Where do Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma stand in their respective careers? It’s a poignant question but an important one, considering their recent form. Rohit Sharma averages 26 in 13 Tests this year. Kohli, on the other hand, averages 25 in 9 Tests in 2024. They don’t play T20Is anymore and ODIs, safe to say, have been largely reduced to ICC and ACC tournaments. Questions are bound to rise and they are rising. Kohli and Rohit know it. Considering their class, they might have been able to find answers to them, but can their fans do the same?

Passionate Indian cricket fans having a hard time moving on from their legends of the game is a pretty familiar scenario. It has happened for Sunil Gavaskar. For Kapil Dev. Most famously for Sachin Tendulkar and then MS Dhoni. But it’s slightly different for Rohit and Kohli. They are, in real words, the first Indian superstars of the social media generation.

This makes no change to the love and affection they receive from their fans but the medium they get that is different. One could argue that Dhoni had his fair share of social media following, but he sort of fell in that in-between generation. Rohit and Kohli started their careers when social media had just arrived, and by the time they became big names, social media had become an integral part of everyone’s daily life.

The problem with social media fans is their extremely volatile nature. Yes, they can at times, swing at a far quicker pace than fans in real life.

Former Kolkata Knight Riders team director Joy Bhattachrjya asked how would the fans once Rohit and Kohli decide to call time on their careers.

“The Sachin fan was a different fan from a different era. But what happens to the Virat & Rohit fanatics when they finally end their long & illustrious careers. I ask because this is the 1st social media driven generation which will see their heroes retire,” he wrote on X.

Here are some of the replies the post got

Meanwhile, India were battling hard to avoid the follow-on in the third Test against Australia at the Gabba in Brisbane. After another failure from the top-order, except KL Rahul (84), Ravindra Jadeja led a lower-order fightback for India. Playing his first Test in this Border-Gavaskar Trophy, Jadeja was unbeaten on 65* with Mohammed Siraj (1*) for company as India were 201/7 when rain forced an early Tea at the Gabba. Indian were still 45 runs away from making Australia bat again.