After missing the first Test due to the birth of his second child, Rohit returned to manage in Adelaide but things have been far from ideal since then.
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He opted to bat in the middle order for the Adelaide and Brisbane matches, but decided to open in Melbourne. The return to the top forced the management to drop Shubman Gill and that backfired as Rohit’s dismal run with the bat continued and that rubbed off on his below-par decision-making in the middle.
The writing was on the wall for the 37-year-old who was certain to say goodbye to Test cricket after the match in Sydney. As TimesofIndia.com had reported last week, his current form did not deserve a place in the New Year’s Test list and the think tank took the bold step of ruling him out of the final match of the series.
Rohit has been having a bad run with the bat for quite a while now. In the ongoing BGT, Rohit has collected just 31 runs in five innings at an average of 6.20.
His numbers since the start of 2024 are also disappointing. In 14 matches in the past year, he scored only 619 runs at an average of 24.76 with two hundreds and two fifties.
Ever since he scored a 103 against England in March 2024, Rohit has struggled to earn runs. After that century in Dharamsala, Rohit produced just 154 runs in 15 innings at an average of 10.26, including a career-best 52 against New Zealand in Bengaluru.
Rohit did not attend the pre-match press conference and coach Gautam Gambhir’s responses to playing the XI further added fuel to the fire.
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For what will be his final session with the Test team, Rohit remained very detached and was happy to observe the proceedings from a distant corner as Jasprit Bumrah engaged in all the discussions with coach Gambhir and others players.
As things stand, India’s transition is now moving at a rapid pace and while Rohit is yet to officially call it a day, he has certainly played his last Test for India at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Bumrah to lead
Gautam Gambhir’s serious one-on-one chat with Jasprit Bumrah
Bumrah was very active during Thursday’s practice session and right from his handshakes with Gill and his banter with Rohit, India’s vice-captain-designate looked set to take the armband around him for the second time of the series. Under his captaincy, India won the first match of the series, by 295 runs, before things took a turn for the worse in the rest of the matches.
India will now hope that the change in management will change the energy in the dressing room and retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy after winning the last match in Sydney.
Normal will now be restored and KL Rahul-Yashasvi Jaiswal will return to the top of the order while Gill will bat at No. 3. Akash Deep’s injury will see a new pacer and Prasidh Krishna is likely to make the cut. Mohammed Siraj was a spectator for most of the session and it remains to be seen whether the team backs his ‘attitude’ and gives him another chance or brings in Harshit Rana.
