Captain Rohit may sit out of Sydney Test in dramatic Team India twist
Rohit Sharma may sit out the fifth Test, possibly ending his career in the longest format, as India faces pivotal match against Australia.
Sydney On the eve of one of Team India’s most important match in years, out-of-form skipper Rohit Sharma is likely to opt out of the fifth Test in favour of Shubman Gill — a move that may spell the end of his career in the game’s longest and purest format.

The next five days at the Sydney Cricket Ground will reveal much about the merits of this decision, and offer pointers about a generational shift in Indian cricket. A win for India — it seems a bridge too far going into the match, but stranger things have happened in cricket — will help them level the series 2-2 and retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, keeping alive an outside chance of qualifying for the World Test Championship final.
A loss will possibly throw Indian cricket into a tail spin, raising questions not just about the senior players who are falling well short of expectations but also coach Gautam Gambhir’s dismal run at the helm.
On Thursday, people aware of the matter said that Rohit conveyed to Gambhir and chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar that he will most likely not play the Test, making way for Gill to be included in the team. Gill was dropped in Melbourne as the 37-year-old Rohit moved to the top of the order. Expectedly, Jasprit Bumrah — who took India to victory at Perth — is all set to take over as captain.
If Rohit does indeed sit out — a night can sometimes be a long time in Indian cricket — he is going to be the first India captain to not play a Test due to poor form. The last time something of this sort nearly happened was in 2005, when then coach Greg Chappell asked Sourav Ganguly to sit out of the Bulawayo Test in Zimbabwe. Ganguly, of course, did not sit out, and went on to score a century for good measure.
England’s Mike Denness was the last Test captain to drop himself from the team during the 1974/75 Ashes series in Australia, sitting out of the fourth Test in Sydney after scoring only 65 runs in his first six innings. Rohit has failed to hit double digits in five innings after missing the series-opener at Perth (which India won under Bumrah), and his 40-ball 9 in the second innings at Melbourne is his longest and best innings so far. Still, he has been around long enough and done enough to deserve respect — from colleagues, opponents and administrators alike.
The signs that something was up in the Indian camp were visible through the day. When Gambhir, who turned up for his first press conference of the tour on Thursday, refused to confirm whether Rohit will be part of India’s starting 11, he set into motion a sequence of events that raised intrigue.
“Everything is fine with Rohit,” Gambhir told reporters. “I don’t think it’s anything traditional (that a captain must speak to the media the day before a Test). If the coach is there, that should be fine, that should be good enough. We will have a look at the wicket and finalise it tomorrow,” he said, when asked why the captain was not the one answering questions.
Pressed specifically on Rohit’s involvement in the Test, he said: “The answer remains the same.”
It would have perhaps been simpler for Gambhir to clear the air. But the waters remained muddy after his briefing, and there may be some bad blood to contend with once the dust settles on this tour.
Rohit’s mannerisms during the practice session that followed Gambhir’s press briefing were peculiar. He wasn’t very active during the foot-volley game between the players — but then he usually doesn’t do much during that time anyway. So that was kind of normal. What followed wasn’t.
Rohit did not practice slip-catching, choosing instead to retire to the dressing room, where he stayed for the next hour while his team mates hit the nets. KL Rahul, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Shubman Gill all had long sessions, and it was only as their stints were winding down that the skipper arrived in the nets.
He had his jumper on, and he wasn’t padded up. He stood on the sidelines for a long time before being finally approached by Jasprit Bumrah. That is when Rohit seemed to open up a bit, cracking jokes with the bowler. The Indian team’s game data analyst, Hari Prasad Mohan, was also around the two.
Then, as all the top players were finishing their sessions, the Indian skipper made a quick move towards the dressing room. From there, he emerged after a few minutes — fully padded up and ready to hit the nets. He batted for around 10 minutes before heading back to the dressing room in the company of Agarkar and Bumrah.
A little later, after the session was done, Gambhir, Rohit and Bumrah came out and sat in the member’s pavilion for around 5-10 minutes. As far as optics go, it was not a great show.
Playing and coaching careers are on the line, a cricketing rivalry is set to get a new direction, and young stars are getting ready to don the mantle of leaders in Sydney this week. The timing — the eve of a fifth and final Test in Australia — is far from ideal. But if it helps India draw the series, some might say all the intrigue was worth it.
