New Delhi, May 12 -- India's prized Test assets, who carried the country's hopes of carrying its winning momentum in the last Border-Gavaskar Trophy, have now faded into retirement as the new World Test Championship cycle is on the cusp of commencement.

Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Ravinchandran Ashwin, who bore the brunt of churning out results in favour of the tourists during the gruelling Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Australia, malfunctioned when stakes broke the roof.

Virat announced his retirement on Monday from red-ball cricket and marked the continuation of the trend of exodus from the Test format in the Indian setup. Before the Indian batting bigwigs, the illustrious frontline off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin called it a day on his...