Sanjay Manjrekar has voiced his disappointment with the Indian camp keeping the news of Rohit Sharma sitting out of the fifth Test match a secret until the toss.
There had been reports of Indian captain Rohit Sharma missing the fifth Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Rohit’s lack of runs had coincided with a string of defeats the Indian Test side had not known in a while. Head coach Gautam Gambhir had attended the pre-match press conference. There, the media had asked him for Rohit’s update. Without providing a direct answer, Gambhir announced that India would pick their final XI after having a look at the pitch.
The reports were verified when Jasprit Bumrah walked out to toss with Pat Cummins. “Our captain had opted to rest,” confirmed Bumrah at the toss. He also won the toss and opted to bat, and confirmed that Shubman Gill and Prasidh Krishna were the replacements (the injured Akash Deep missed out as well). Australia, meanwhile, replaced Mitchell Marsh with Beau Webster.
On air, Sanjay Manjrekar spoke about the Indian camp’s decision to keep Rohit’s, to quote Bumrah, "resting" a secret: “Rohit is well rested. The issue I have with Indian cricket culture, the secretive operation. Rohit is not an all-time great to keep his exclusion mysterious. I can understand if it’s Virat Kohli. But Rohit has played 60-odd Tests with one overseas century and an average of just 40. I don’t get why it should be so mysterious.”
From 67 Tests, Rohit has 4,301 runs at 40.57. However, the average number drops to 31.01 away from home (two hundreds), and to 27.95 in “SENA” countries (one).
“So typical of Rohit Sharma,” Manjrekar tweeted later. “Doing the right thing, doing what’s right for the team. But could not understand the ‘cloak & dagger’ around the issue. Wasn’t even talked about at the toss.”
Deep Dasgupta, meanwhile, praised the “selfless” nature of Rohit’s decision, reminding the viewers of his high-risk batting approach at the top since he had assumed leadership.
Amidst the buzz around Rohit sitting out, two things went largely unnoticed. One, Bumrah opting to bat on a greenish pitch. And two, India not bolstering their pace attack, not playing the extra fast bowler. This, despite the lack of the extra fast bowler allowing Australia to get a big total in the first innings and letting their tail get away in the second, and Bumrah looking exhausted towards the end.
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