Sydney: Rohit Sharma has been dropped from India playing XI for the Sydney Test vs Australia starting tomorrow (Friday). The Indian captain has been woefully out-of-form in his last few test outings and the move comes on expected lines as the entire team combination went for a toss with Rohit’s movement in the batting order.
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Do you agree with Rohit Sharma’s exclusion from the 5th Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy?
After missing the first Test due to the birth of his second child, Rohit returned to lead in Adelaide but things have been far from ideal since then.
He chose to bat in the middle-order for the Adelaide and Brisbane fixtures but decided to open in Melbourne. The move back to top forced the management to drop Shubman Gill and it backfired as Rohit’s dismal run with the bat continued and it rubbed off on his below-par decision making in the middle.
The writing was very much on the wall for the 37-year-old who was certain to bid goodbye to Test cricket after the Sydney fixture. As TimesofIndia.com had reported last week, his current form didn’t merit a place in the line-up for that New Year Test and the think-tank has taken the bold call to exclude him from the final game of the series.
READ: How the events unfolded during Rohit Sharma’s last net session in Sydney
Rohit has had a lean patch with the bat for quite a while now. In the ongoing BGT, Rohit has mustered just 31 runs from five innings at an average of 6.20.
His numbers since the start of 2024 have been underwhelming too. From 14 matches in the year gone by, he scored just 619 runs at an average of 24.76 with two hundreds and two fifties.
Since scoring a 103 against England in March 2024, Rohit has struggled for runs. After that century knock in Dharamsala, Rohit has produced just 154 runs from 15 innings at an average of 10.26, it includes a best of 52 against New Zealand in Bengaluru.
Rohit didn’t attend the pre-match press conference and coach Gautam Gambhir’s responses to playing XI further fueled the fire.
For what is going to be his last session with the Test side, Rohit remained very detached and was happy to observe proceedings from a distant corner as Jasprit Bumrah engaged in all the talking with coach Gambhir and other players.
As things stand, India’s transition is now moving at a rapid pace and while Rohit is yet to officially call it a day, he has certainly played his last Test for India at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Bumrah to lead
Bumrah was very active in the practice session on Thursday and right from his handshakes with Gill to banter with Rohit, India’s designated vice-captain looked ready to take the armband around him for the second time in the series. Under his captaincy, India won the series opener, by 295 runs, before things took a turn for the worse in the remainder of the fixtures.
India will now hope the change in leadership changes the energy in the dressing room and they retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy after winning the final game in Sydney.
Normalcy will now be restored and KL Rahul-Yashasvi Jaiswal will return to top of the order while Gill will bat at No. 3. Akash Deep’s injury will see a new pacer and Prasidh Krishna is likely to make the cut. Mohammed Siraj was a spectator for most of the session and it remains to be seen whether the side backs his “attitude” and gives him another go or brings in Harshit Rana.
