Fake news of Rohit Sharma’s retirement from cricket causes flutter

Kolkata: An X-post, using sports website Sportskeeda’s logo, created a bit of flutter in the social media space when it said yesterday: ‘Breaking News: Rohit Sharma retires from all formats of international cricket.’ It was fake as the website called it soon enough – preventing any further amplification. 

Sportskeeda issued a rejoinder that their logo was misused and there was no element of truth in the news. Meanwhile, a website, cricketception.wixsite.com, went a step further when they used a snap of Kushan Sarkar – a PTI cricket writer – to publish a story ‘Sharma hangs up his boots; Kohli snubs BCCI’s Test captaincy Pandya to take charge of white ball cap.’ 

No wonder, the cricketception story had garnered 74.3 k views till Thursday evening – showing how such clickbait stories can create confusion among fans.  

They are surely a fallout of India’s defeat in the World Cup final against Australia last Sunday in Ahmedabad. The BCCI sources have indicated though that Rohit, who had a great run with the bat in the 50-overs showpiece, may not be playing in the T20 format anymore in order to manage his workload. 

Incidentally, both Rohit and Virat Kohli had not been playing T20s since India’s semi-final exit in the T20 World Cup in Australia last year. There is nothing unusual in the Indian captain, now 36, trying to prolong his career by cutting down on a format with as many as four young and proven performers in IPL in contention for the openers’ spot - Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ishan Kishan and Ruturaj Gaikwad.