Rohit Sharma’s name erased from India’s official 16-member list moments after animated chat with coach Gautam Gambhir

Rohit Sharma’s name mysteriously vanished from India’s official team sheet, which the BCCI shared moments after the toss of the fifth and final Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia at the SCG in Sydney.

Jasprit Bumrah, who walked out to toss in place Rohit on Friday morning, said Rohit himself “opted to rest” from the series finale. There was no official word from the BCCI either via a press release or a social media post about Rohit’s absence but the team sheet shared on the official WhatsApp group did not feature Rohit’s name even in the reserve players’ list.

Apart from the XI players that included comeback men Shubman Gill and Prasidh Krishna, the team sheet had the names of all the fit members of India’s official squad except Rohit Sharma. Devudutt Padikkal, Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel, Abhimanyu Easwaran, and Harshit Rana were all part of the reserve players’ list and rightly so. The only other cricketer not part of the team sheet apart from Rohit was pacer Akash Deep, who was declared injured and unfit to play.

Why Rohit opted out of the Sydney Test

Interestingly, Rohit, who largely avoided open discussion with head coach Gautam Gambhir on the eve of the New Year’s Test, was seen having an animated discussion with the former India opener before the start of play of the Pink Test. Rohit mostly talked in the discussion, which also involved Jasprit Bumrah on the pitch side.

Rohit made the call after scoring 31 runs in five innings across three Tests. The 37-year-old white ball great looked like a pale shadow of himself in those innings, struggling to execute even his bread-and-butter shots, including the trademark front pull.

Looking at India’s practice session on the eve of the game, it became clear that Rohit was going to sit out.

Speculation over his future in the longest format also gained momentum after India lost the fourth Test in Melbourne, tying the five-match series 1-2.

The year 2024 turned out to be the least productive year for Rohit in Test cricket as he collected 619 runs in 26 innings across 14 matches averaging 24.76.

Having played his 67th five-day game in Melbourne, Rohit is also expected to call time on his roller-coaster Test career soon.

Meanwhile, India once again got off to a disastrous start after opting to bat. KL Rahul (4) and Yashavi Jaiswal (10) were out early against the new ball, while Virat Kohli survived a close catch appeal to avoid a golden duck. Just when it looked like India would share the honours of the first session with Australia on difficult batting conditions, Shubman Gill (20) suffered a brain fade. He charged down the track to Nathan Lyon and got an outside edge to first slip on the last ball of Lunch.