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Gautam Gambhir has left Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli to decide their Test future for themselves.
Rohit Sharma (L) and Virat Kohli.
Indian head coach Gautam Gambhir has left the call on Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli’s future with the Test team on the senior pair, saying they will ‘decide what is best for Indian cricket’. He called them ‘tough people with hunger’ and even praised skipper Rohit for taking ‘accountability’ by opting out of the final Test of the 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
Gambhir’s comments came at the Sydney Cricket Ground, where India lost the last Test of the series by six wickets on the third day. The series went 3-1 in Australia’s favor, marking the first time they held the trophy since 2017. Rohit scored just 31 runs in five innings in the series while Kohli failed to cross the half-century mark after his unbeaten 100 in Perth.
“They are tough people with hunger, they’ll decide what is best for Indian cricket,” said Gambhir at the post-match media interaction.
“To keep the dressing room happy, I have to be honest and fair to everyone. Rohit Sharma showed accountability at the top,” the head coach said.
Rohit and Kohli’s form and contribution to the team were major talking points throughout the series. Kohli’s Perth century came when the conditions were excellent to bat on at the Perth Stadium and he was allowed to come at a favorable time after a good opening stand, which was never matched after that.
The former skipper continued to struggle on deliveries outside off for the rest of the series. He changed guards, changed approaches and even mindset shifts were easy to observe but runs didn’t come off.
Rohit, meanwhile, looked a shadow of his former self. He batted in the middle-order in the second Test to avoid disrupting the opening pair of KL Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal but couldn’t buy more than 10 runs in the innings.
His decision to go back to the top and drop Shubman Gill for it in the fourth Test backfired further as India’s batting looked even weaker. India have now lost a home series against New Zealand and an away series against Australia in his and Gambhir’s reign, winning just three Tests in ten.
With younger players waiting in the ring and the next Test assignment five months away, the quicker India decide on their future, the better for the team.
- Location :
Sydney, Australia
