India captain Rohit Sharma was left out of the India XI for the fifth and final Test against Australia in Sydney. Jasprit Bumrah, who took over from Rohit as India’s captain, confirmed that the veteran batsman had decided to pull out of the match in the team’s interest. However, Rohit’s name was nowhere to be found in the India Test squad released by the BCCI for the match, suggesting that things were not as rosy as portrayed.
Has an Indian captain been dropped before?
Rohit Sharma became the first Indian captain to be dropped in the middle of an international series. However, the veteran batsman is not the first Indian captain to be dropped from his side.
The first instance of an Indian captain being dropped was in 1958-59 when Polly Umrigar was dropped from the Test side against the West Indies. The second was when Sourav Ganguly was dropped after a string of poor scores and a strained relationship with coach Greg Chapell.
While Rohit hasn’t had any public spats with the head coach, but the veteran opener has struggled for runs recently. In the 8 matches since the Bangladesh series, he has scored 164 runs at an average of just 10.9. The 37-year-old missed the first match of the BGT in Perth and failed to find form in the following matches.
What did Bumrah say about Rohit being dropped?
Speaking at the toss, Bumrah praised Rohit was showing leadership by opting to rest in the match. He said, “Our captain has shown leadership by opting to rest in this game. That shows there’s a lot of unity in this team. There’s no selfishness. Whatever is in the team’s best interest we are looking to do that. Two changes, Rohit has opted to rest and Akash Deep is injured so Prasidh comes in.”
