Rohit Sharma’s ‘resting’ from the fifth India vs Australia Test in Sydney has probably unleashed a chain of events in Indian cricket that will take time to settle. At 37, with India’s next Test series over five months away, Rohit might have played his final Test match. The retirements of Rohit, Virat Kohli, and Ravindra Jadeja from T20Is after the World Cup ushered in the transition phase in Indian cricket. Now, mid-series retirement in Australia by Ravichandran Ashwin, and ‘rest’ of the captain in a crucial fifth Test, the phase of transition peaks.
But then, how has the decision for ‘rest’ of the captain mid-series arisen?
PTI said in its report, “all present at the SCG witnessed a complete communication breakdown between the skipper and the head coach.” It had already given indications but on Thursday it was amply clear that Rohit Sharma was no longer part of coach Gautam Gambhir’s scheme of things. He had managed just one half-century in the second innings of the eight Tests he played this season.
The report further added that Rohit seemed to be a shadow of his former self during the training session. He was getting hit by T Dilip’s throwdowns and was missing the line of deliveries, and he reacted late to the balls.
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Interestingly, while Rohit was batting, Nitish Kumar Reddy was looking in fine touch on the adjacent nets, consistently middling the ball. Gambhir, the head coach, stood at the umpire’s position in Reddy’s nets while Rohit went about his routines.
After the session, Rohit, with Bumrah and Agarkar, went out of the nets. But Gambhir lingered. It has been gathered that in a post-training meeting, it was resolved that Rohit Sharma was to be ‘rested,’ a euphemism used in Indian cricket parlance, meaning “dropped with notice.”
After an hour, about 45 minutes later, when the team got dispersed, all the players made their way to the door for the net area and went outside to the bus. Rohit, however had come out of another gate and went to the bus.
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