Australia batter Travis Head’s ‘three-word’ praise for Rohit Sharma, who recently announced his Test retirement, has won the internet. Head and Rohit share an on-field camaraderie that is loved by everyone off it, with the Aussie white-ball opener taking it to his social media handle X to post for Rohit.

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Amidst escalating cross-border tensions between India and Pakistan, Rohit shocked the cricket world with a Test retirement call just before India’s first international assignment post-IPL 2025 – the away Test tour of England. Rohit was earlier said to be retaining his place as Team India captain for England Tests starting June 20 in Leeds; however, the selectors decided against sticking with him as the Test captain, forcing a rushed retirement.

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Now that Rohit is done with Tests and T20Is, having already announced his retirement from the shortest format following winning the T20 World Cup in the Americas last year, the One-Day format is the only one he will continue to play. Although he has no ambitions of doing away with his IPL commitments for the Mumbai Indians, Rohit’s cricket future hangs by a thin thread.

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Plenty of tributes came in from the cricketing fraternity, let alone from India only, with former, current and upcoming cricketers sending in best wishes. One included from Rohit’s India teammate Abhishek Sharma, who wrote, ‘Thank you for everything big brother’, to which Head reposted it, writing, ‘What a player’.

No bad-blood

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Since Rohit Sharma took over the all-format captaincy from Virat Kohli in late 2022, India played four ICC finals, losing two – the WTC Final 2023 and the final of the home ODI World Cup at home, to Australia, and the sole reason behind it was Travis Head.

While Head slammed his maiden WTC Final hundred against India at the Oval, scoring a match-winning 163 in the first innings, his 137 in the final against the Men in Blue broke a billion hearts. The left-handed opener came close to completing a hat-trick of match-winning knocks against India in ICC events (during the T20 WC league game), scoring 76, but failed to help his team cross the line in that game.

Even during Rohit’s final Test series against Australia Down Under, Head was the top run-getter, scoring 448 runs in five matches, averaging 56. He hit two centuries, including 152 in the third Test at the Gabba in Brisbane. Australia completed a 3-1 win over India, winning the BGT for the first time in a decade.