Gautam Gambhir Turned Down Request To Let Rohit Sharma Play In Sydney For 5th Test Against Australia: Reports

Due to the continuous rumors around his future and availability in India’s national Test squad, after a woeful performance with the bat since September last year, Indian skipper Rohit Sharma had opted out from team India’s playing XI ahead of the fifth and the last Test match against Australia of the ongoing series. Rohit, who has scored just 31 runs in this series with the worst average of 6.20 by a visiting captain, is all set to be replaced by Shubman Gill, whereas KL Rahul will continue to open the innings in the upcoming clash.

According to earlier reports, it was Rohit, who had told head coach Gautam Gambhir and Ajit Agarkar about his decision to pull out and both of them agreed to this decision but as per the latest PTI reports, it was Gambhir, who decided to drop Rohit as his priority was to win the last match in Sydney as that would not just help the Men in Blue defend the Border-Gavaskar Trophy but also keep them in contention of qualifying for the third consecutive WTC final.

According to the report, a senior BCCI official did try to persuade Gambhir to let Rohit play the last match in Sydney and then announce retirement from the longest format. But Gambhir denied this request so that the visitors could win the match in Sydney and stay alive in the race to the WTC summit clash.

What did Gambhir say about Rohit in the pre-match presser?

During the intense pre-match press conference, Gambhir, who came in place of Rohit, looked riled up on being asked about Rohit’s position in team India’s playing XI for the last match.

He was also asked why Rohit didn’t attend the pre-match press conference and to this, he said, “Everything is fine with Rohit. The head coach is there. That should be fine. That should be good enough. We’re going to have a look at the wicket and finalize (the starting XI) tomorrow.”

He was also asked as to whether Rohit would be included in team India’s playing XI for the fifth and the last Test match in Sydney and to this he replied, “I just said that we’re going to have a look at the wicket and announce a playing 11 tomorrow. The answer remains the same.”

Rohit did attend the training session on Thursday but these rumors looked true after the Indian skipper wasn’t seen standing at the slip cordons in the fielding session in Sydney.