Sehwag says more people are watching cricket after Kohli and Rohit retire from Tests

Virender Sehwag dismissed concerns that fan interest would decline after Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Ravichandran Ashwin retired from Test cricket. The former India opener said the same claims were made when Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev and Sachin Tendulkar stepped away, yet audiences have grown. He attributed the increase to cricket moving from television to mobile phones.

Sehwag said some fans had told him they stopped watching after his own retirement, but he did not believe them. He argued that if the game depended only on individual cricketers, it would have stopped long ago. Shubman Gill has taken over the Test captaincy since Kohli and Rohit stepped away.

The three retirements have left questions about who will fill the void in India's red-ball setup over the coming years.