Under Rohit, India beat Bangladesh 2-0 at home, but that was followed by a 0-3 sweep against New Zealand. That ended India’s streak of 18 consecutive series wins on home soil.

Jasprit Bumrah led India to a famous win when Rohit missed the first Test on the Australia tour, at Perth. Rohit took over for the next three Tests, over the course of which Australia took a 2-1 lead in the series. This included India’s first defeat at Melbourne since 2011-12.

India’s abysmal run has coincided with Rohit’s woeful run with the bat. Across eight Tests and two batting positions in 2024-25, he has made 164 runs at 10.93 with a solitary fifty. Promoting himself back to the top at Melbourne has not worked for him either, for it meant the in-form KL Rahul had to drop to No.3.

There have been speculations over Rohit retiring mid-series; or of dropping himself (or of the on-tour team management leaving him out for the fifth Test match, at Sydney). Rohit did not appear at the pre-match press conference. However, he was part of the team practice session, where he batted but was not part of the slip cordon.

At the press conference, the media asked head coach Gambhir “a couple of times” on whether Rohit would play in the final Test match. Without providing a direct answer, Gambhir said that the team would make the decision “after looking at the pitch”.

Gambhir, thus, did not put the speculations over Rohit’s playing to an end. However, he did confirm that fast bowler Akash Deep would miss the final Test match due to an injury.

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