Legendary Sunil Gavaskar lashed out at Rohit Sharma for his poor returns with the bat in the Border-Gavaskar trophy against India, which the visitors lost by 3-1 after a six-wicket loss at the SCG on Sunday.
After missing the opening Test at Perth for the birth of his second child, Rohit returned with scores of 3, 6, 10, 3, and 9 in the next five innings, thus aggregating only 31 runs at an average of 6.20.
The Indian captain then decided to ‘stood out’ as he felt that the team could not afford to carry many out-of-form batters and he wanted to set the right example.
Earlier, Rohit could only manage 42 runs in two Test matches against Bangladesh and then scored 91 runs at an average of 15.17 in three Test matches against New Zealand. The veteran has managed a solitary fifty in his last 15 Test innings.
“If he had been a selector, you don’t have a vote as a captain but are a co-opted member of the selection committee, would he have given another chance to a player who performed like this? If you say, yes, you would have given another chance to such a player, then it’s different,” Sunil Gavaskar said on Star Sports.
“If some other player had so many failures, three Test matches against New Zealand and three Test matches here, and you would have said you wanted to pick him, it’s different, or else the thing is clear in front of the selection committee,” Gavaskar observed.
The Little Master also feels that the age factor is also not in Rohit’s favour as he is already 38 and the 2027 WTC Final is more than two years away after India was knocked out of the 2023-25 WTC final contention.
“The second thing is about the age. It’s different if someone is 25 or 26 years of age. Whatever, I have said previously, it’s not about Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli or (Ravichandran) Ashwin, I am saying that the next World Test Championship cycle is starting in June. It will be a series in England,” he said.
Gavaskar said the selectors should back players who will be fit for the whole of WTC 2025-27 cycle.
“Then when the final will be after two years in June 2027, will all these players be available for that? By available I mean whether they will be fit to play, whether they will be fit performance-wise. If not, I would stay start afresh from the England series,” Gavaskar observed.
India will next take on England in five T20Is and three ODIs at home.
