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January 02 2025
Rohit Sharma News: India's head coach, Gautam Gambhir, addressed questions regarding the playing XI ahead of the fifth and final Test in Sydney.
He explained, "We will assess the wicket and finalize the lineup tomorrow."
He went on to say, "As I said before, we'll assess the wicket and reveal the playing XI tomorrow."
While his response was standard, the situation gained attention when he was directly asked about Rohit Sharma's participation at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG).
The question was raised not once, but twice, adding extra focus on the matter.
The answer remained the same, even the words were somewhat terse, and it certainly surprised some in the media room. This was Gambhir's first interaction with the media in Australia, as the coach has mysteriously remained away since his pre-departure address in November.
He is back in the news at a time when many questions are being raised about the dressing room atmosphere, the haste shown in selecting the XI and the defeat in Melbourne, which came after the controversial decision to bench Shubman Gill.
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The No. 3 was benched to bring Rohit back to the top of the order, but it didn't work as the Indian captain's poor form continued and India lost the Boxing Day Test.
When asked about the constant changes, discussions with senior players, Gambhir emphasised the importance of "honesty" and said that "Indian cricket is in safe hands".
There was a lot of normal conversation during the interaction, which went on for over ten minutes, but what happened next added to the intrigue of India's final practice session of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
Moments after the press conference got over, Gambhir had a long chat with Jasprit Bumrah near the change room while the rest of the players were playing foot-volley.
After the warm-ups were complete, the head coach went to the field and interacted with Shubman Gill, who was doing fielding drills with coach T Dilip and Washington Sundar at the moment. A brief chat was followed by fist bumps, back pats and soon Bumrah too joined in and shook hands with Gill.
The young player, who was dropped for the Boxing Day Test, kept working on his close-in catching drills. Meanwhile, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul, Nitish K Reddy, and Yashasvi Jaiswal focused on slip-catching.
Throughout this, Rohit stood apart from the group. He did not take part in the catching drills, which he had been very active in before the Melbourne match.
Rohit was one of the last players to leave the ground. The other batters had already made their way to the nets.
Kohli, KL Rahul, Yashasvi Jaiswal, and Ravindra Jadeja began the session.
Rohit, still wearing his training shorts and sweatshirt, had a lengthy conversation with Washington Sundar outside the dressing room.
After Sundar left, it was Shubman Gill's turn to speak with the skipper. Jasprit Bumrah joined them for the chat.
Once the brief discussion ended, all the players were putting in the effort, but Rohit was nowhere to be found.
Kohli, Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Jadeja and now Gill too were changing nets as they faced Sundar, Reddy, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana and a host of side-arm bowlers.
This continued before Rohit came in and he stood in a corner and started talking to video analyst Hari and then started a long, light-hearted conversation with Bumrah. The pacer had the ball in his hand and the two joked around but Rohit did not look in the mood to hit.
The players started leaving the field and Rohit too left, further increasing the curiosity of the travelling media persons. But he came back a few minutes later, suited up in batting gear, and played a brief shot before wrapping up the final session of India's tour.
This wasn’t a typical net session, as Rohit is usually very vocal on the field and never stays off to the side, avoiding the action.
However, Thursday was different and felt different. Even when the public announcers were practicing the names of the captains of both the teams in the main ground, Rohit gave enough hints that he is not going to be the captain for the New Year Test.
He’s been the captain for a while now, so it’s not shocking that he was left out of the final match of the series.
Everything in the nets indicated one clear outcome: Rohit would be replaced by Gill.
The coach insisted that the final decision would be made on match day morning.
However, it’s clear that Rohit's last Test appearance in whites took place at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Like many great players, he ended his career without a formal farewell match.
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