India captain Rohit Sharma has broken his silence and has finally spoken about his decision of ‘opting to rest’ fifth and the final Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 in Sydney. During the lunch break after the first session on the 2nd day of the match, Rohit Sharma was present for a small interview.
In a conversation with Star Sports, Rohit was asked to share his thought and views behind making this decision, to which he opened up and shared that he had a conversation with selectors regarding him not being in form and being unable to score runs.
“I stood down that is what I would say. The chat that I had with the coach and selector, was very simple that I was not able to score runs with the bat. I am not in form. This is an important match, we needed a win. We couldn’t carry many out of form players. They backed my decision, which was difficult for me to take,” he said on Star Sports.
Rohit also cleared air regarding him giving this decision some thought for a period of time, but could not convey his wish since it was New Year after the Melbourne Test came to an end. The Indian skipper also mentioned how it was important for him to step aside instead of having another failure in the final match of the series.
“The thought process was going for quite some time. The decision was taken after coming here. After Melbourne there was New Years’s day. On that day, I did not want to tell the coach and selector about this. I was trying but could not score and it was important for me step aside from this match,” he added.
“I don’t believe in what happens five months later. I want to focus on the present. This decision is not retirement decision. I am not going to move away from the game,” he said.
Coming to the match, India’s stand-in captain Jasprit Bumrah won the toss and decided to bat first. The visitors managed to score 185 runs before Australian bowlers wrapped up their innings. Rishabh Pant was the highest run-scorer for India as he scored 40 runs.
Australian innings began on Day 1 of the Test, where they played three overs and lost the wicket of Usman Khawaja. The second Day saw the fall of Sam Konstas, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith and Travis Head in the first session. By the time it was lunch time, Australia was at 101 runs on the loss of 5 wickets. KL Rahul was the best fielder in the first session, as he took three catches within the four wickets which got taken.
The post ‘I was not able to…’: Rohit Sharma breaks Speculations about retirement from Test cricket after ‘Resting’ from Sydney Test appeared first on Cricket Country.
