The playing XI for India's Test match against Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground in the new year does not include captain Rohit Sharma. Jasprit Bumrah returned after leading the team to a historic 295-run victory in the series' first Test match at Perth Stadium. During the toss, Bumrah stated that Rohit had 'opted to rest himself'. There was a lot of buzz around this potentially happening for the past couple of days following Rohit Sharma's dismal performance in the current Border-Gavaskar Trophy, in which he has only amassed 31 runs from three games. However, it did not sit right with Sanjay Manjrekar.
Majrekar's shocking remark
Former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar made a shocking remark after Jasprit Bumrah announced Rohit's decision to opt-out. Manjrekar said Rohit is not an all-time great like Virat Kohli to keep his exclusion mysterious. The former cricketer is expectedly to face backlash over his statement. However, this has been the case in recent times as Manjrekar has been receiving criticism from both players and fans alike over his remarks.
"Rohit is not an all-time great to keep his exclusion mysterious. I can understand if it's Virat Kohli. But Rohit has played 60-odd Tests with one overseas century and an average of just 40. I don't get why it should be so mysterious," said Sanjay Manjrekar.
Bumrah reveals Rohit's decision
In order 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.
IND vs AUS Playing XIs
Australia: Usman Khawaja, Sam Konstas, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Travis Head, Beau Webster, Alex Carey (wk), Pat Cummins (capt), Mitchell Starc, Scott Boland, Nathan Lyon
India: Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant(w), Ravindra Jadeja, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Jasprit Bumrah(c), Prasidh Krishna, Mohammed Sira