Irfan Pathan Says Rohit Sharma Wouldn’t Have Found a Place in India’s Playing XI on Australia Tour If He Wouldn’t Have Been The Captain

Former Indian all-rounder Irfan Pathan has opened up on Rohit Sharma’s viral interview on the Australian tour. In the fifth Test match against Australia at Sydney, Rohit decided to stand down from the playing XI as he was not in good form.

Rohit had managed only 31 runs in three Test matches against Australia in the Border-Gavaskar series at an average of 6.20. Before this series, Rohit had scored only 91 runs in three Test matches against New Zealand despite playing at home. Furthermore, Rohit had aggregated only 42 runs in two Test matches against Bangladesh in home conditions.

“Rohit Sharma is an amazing player in white-ball cricket, but his average in Test cricket that year was 6, so we said that if he was not the captain, he would not have had a place in the team, and this is true,” Pathan said in a teaser video released by Lallantop on Wednesday.

Pathan revealed that as a broadcaster, he had to be polite while interviewing Rohit Sharma along with Jatin Sapru.

“People say that we supported Rohit Sharma more than necessary. Of course, when someone comes to interview on your broadcasting channel, you will not misbehave with them, right? You have invited him, so you will behave politely. When Rohit came to interview, we were, of course, polite, and we had to show that, because he was our guest. So that was connected and said we were supporting him, but it was we who said…we had said that he should keep fighting, but that said, he should not have had a place in the playing XI. If he was not the captain of the team, he would have been dropped,” Pathan said.

During his interview, Rohit said he isn’t going to retire from Test cricket but retired from the red-ball version on May 7 before the England tour.

Rohit had said on Star Sports, “This is what I say. Stand down. I will say a few words, and fifty words will be made out of it. So basically, runs are not coming from my bat, I am not in form, it is an important match, we need players in form, the boys in our batting are not in form, so you cannot carry too many out-of-form players in the team.”

Rohit will be next seen in action in the three-match ODI series against Australia.