Courtesy: BCCI
Team India is going through a major change nowadays as their legendary batters Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli have retired from international Test cricket recently. The side will now have to get a new captain for the upcoming five-match red-ball series in England. Weeks ahead of the crucial series, former India coach Ravi Shastri has talked about his recent conversation with Rohit regarding the latter’s decision to opt out of the team’s playing XI from the final Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 played at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) earlier this year.
Speaking to Sanjana Ganesan for ICC Review, Shastri revealed he had a chat with Rohit recently regarding the SCG Test and said that if he was India coach then, the veteran opener wouldn’t have missed the final Test played Down Under. "I saw Rohit a lot at the toss (during an IPL match). At the toss, you don't get enough time to speak. Though I did put my hand on his shoulder in one of the games. I think it was in Mumbai, and I told him, if I were the coach, you would have never not played that last Test match," said Shastri.
Shastri also remarked that if he was there, he would have inducted Rohit Sharma in the playing XI as the chances of levelling the series was still alive for India. "You would have played that last Test match because the series wasn't over. And I'm not someone who threw in the towel with the scoreline 2-1. If your mindset is you feel you are… that's not the stage, you leave a team," added Shastri.
Rohit Sharma will be expect to come heavily on bowlers while donning MI jersey
After announcing Test retirement, Rohit Sharma will be seen in action for the first-time on May 21. In the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 game between Mumbai Indians (MI) and Delhi Capitals (DC) at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, the 38-year-old will be expected to take the latter’s bowling attack to the cleaners.
The star player struggled to be among the runs in the initial stage of the tournament but currently, he is in amazing touch with his bat. Appearing in 11 games, he has accumulated 300 runs at a magnificent strike rate of 152.28.
