Rohit Likely to Be Rested for Sydney Test; Bumrah to Captain: Reports

The Indian captain Rohit Sharma will not play the last Test match of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy which will be held in Sydney. The match is scheduled to be held on 3rd January at the Sydney Cricket Ground. The skipper for this match will be Jasprit Bumrah who was instrumental in India’s win in the first Test match that was played at Perth. This will be the fifth and the last Test of the series. This decision was reported by the Indian Express on January 2.

As per the report, Rohit Sharma personally informed the team’s coach Gautam Gambhir and the chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar that he will not be playing the fitth Test and both of them accepted it. The Indian wicketkeeper-batsman KL Rahul who was moved down to bat at number 3 position in Melbourne in order to provide a opening slot to Rohit in the Sydney Test will grab the opening slot once again. Shubman Gill who was omitted from the Test side for the last game is expected to come back into the side and will bat at number three.

Rishabh Pant’s Spot in the Playing XI Under Debate

Injured pacer Akash Deep will be replaced by Karnataka's tall seamer Prasidh Krishna for the final Test. There have been questions as to whether Rishabh Pant will be a part of the playing XI or not, but he is likely to retain his place in the team. Rohit Sharma’s batting form remains a cause for concern as he has managed to score 31 runs in 5 innings with an average of 6.20, which is the second worst by a top six batter in a test match against Australia in Australia. It is interesting to note that he has scored only one run more than the number of wickets that Jasprit Bumrah has taken in this series.

This is the fourth lowest average by an Indian batsman in an away series (min 100 balls faced). Only three are worse than this and they are Ishant Sharma (4.00 against England in 2011), Anil Kumble (4.83 against Sri Lanka in 2008) and Ishant again (5.25 against England in 2018).

In the pre-match press conference Gambhir was asked about Rohit’s place in the team for the final Test and the head coach replied: “We will pick the Playing XI depending on the pitch which will be examined tomorrow. Rohit is good and we will have to finalise the team after having a look at the pitch. ” India are down 1-2 in the series and the Sydney Test is a must win if India want to keep their chances of qualifying for the World Test Championship finals alive.