Former Australia cricketer Mark Taylor has criticized India for using the phrase 'resting Rohit Sharma'. Following the announcement by interim India captain Jasprit Bumrah that Rohit had chosen to take a break from the final Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, Taylor made his remarks. Taylor criticized the substitute captain for what he described as an untruthful remark. Taylor maintained that India should call a spade a spade because Rohit Sharma was obviously removed from the playing XI because of his subpar batting performance.
Mark Taylor on Rohit Sharma
"To be honest, that's, what do I call that. That's once again, sidestepping the point. The bottom line is the captain of a country does not opt out for the final Test match, the final deciding Test match of a series. He has been dropped and I don't know why they just don't say he's been dropped. That doesn't mean he's dropped forever, it means he's missing this match because he is out of form. That is unfortunately professional sports," Mark Taylor said on Triple M Cricket.
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Bumrah reveals Rohit's decision
To allow in-form batters to play in the final Test match of the series, Bumrah referred to Rohit Sharma as "our captain" (India's captain) and claimed that the senior batter had made the selfless decision to rest himself from the playing XI. India must win the last Test match of the series in order to maintain their hopes of making it to the World Test Championship Final and to keep the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
"Yeah, the chat was pretty good. You know, we're trying to keep the positives in mind and keep the learnings as well. Obviously, our captain, you know, has shown his leadership as well. He's opted to rest in this game. So that shows that, you know, there's a lot of unity in our team, there's no selfishness that, you know, whatever is in the team's best interest, we are looking to do that. Two changes, Rohit has rested, Akash Deep is injured and Prasidh Krishna is in," Jasprit Bumrah said during the toss at the SCG.
Gavaskar on Rohit's absence
Legendary Sunil Gavaskar was taken aback by the call and claimed that he had never witnessed something of this nature in his professional life. Gavaskar questioned whether this was the first time a captain in Indian cricket history had chosen to skip a game.
"Yes, I think, because this is such an important Test match they don't want any anything to distract them. Sharma, obviously he's the captain and he's he is selector to selector. He's there's a captain, coach, manager sometimes. They would have had that conversation and looking at his form, he decided that it was better that Gill should come in," Sunil Gavaskar said on Star Sports.
"I think India, it's a little bit different. In the sense that you don't normally see this. This is probably the first time that I recall that a captain has opted not to play. I've dropped myself down the order as a captain when I wasn't scoring runs," he added.