Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting said that he was surprised to hear that Rohit Sharma has 'opted to rest' from the fifth and final Test of the Border-Gavaskar series in Sydney. Owing to the poor form, Rohit pulled out from the Sydney Test as Jasprit Bumrah received the captain's hat for the final Test of the series.
Rohit has been far from his best in the Border-Gavaskar series and even during the previous two series against Bangladesh and New Zealand. The Indian skipper has only 31 runs across five innings at an average of 6.20 and the writing was on the wall.
Meanwhile, Ponting said that the wordings used for Rohit's absence signals his stature. "I think the reaction has been that they all sort of expected that it might happen. The chat's been for the last couple of days that everyone expected that Rohit would not play this game, that Shubman Gill would come back in and that (Jasprit) Bumrah would probably take over the captaincy again and that's the way it's turned out," Ponting told the ICC Review.
"I was very surprised when I heard the term 'opting out' coming into such an important game. We know he's been a great stalwart for Indian cricket over a long period of time. So the way that they've actually worded it, you can only take it on face value.
"We've got to believe what we're hearing coming out of the Indian camp, but being such a big game, knowing that they have to win this one to retain the trophy, it was an interesting time for one of their more experienced players to opt-out," he added.
Despite not saying much, Ponting highlighted this could be the end of Rohit Sharma in Test cricket. "You'd think it's probably a long way back for Rohit Sharma now in this format of the game. India don't play a Test match, I believe, until the middle or late June, which is a long way away when you're sort of coming to the back end of your career.
"I think he's been a terrific player for India so with those sort of guys, you wish them all the best and hope to see them back out there again, but as I said, I think it will be a long - and probably difficult road - back for him," Ponting said.
