Team India pulled the plug on regular captain Rohit Sharma as the vice-captain Jasprit Bumrah walked out for the toss for the fifth and final Test against Australia in Sydney on Friday, January 3. Rohit, who has been woefully out of touch, has averaged 6.2 in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy in five innings and given all the reports and speculations in the build-up to the New Year's Test, it seemed like the penny had finally dropped.
Interestingly, Rohit's name was not even in the squad as one couldn't find his name on the team sheet (featuring 16 names) and he didn't even walk out for the national anthem. The official word, however, was 'opted to rest'.
"Our captain has shown leadership by opting to rest in this game. That shows there's a lot of unity in this team. There's no selfishness. Whatever is in the team's best interest, we are looking to do that," Bumrah said at the toss after the coin fell in the visitors' favour. The terminology suggests that Rohit is still in the Test plans but given how things have panned out, the way coach Gautam Gambhir spoke at the press conference and of course the numerous reports and sources, things don't look good for the regular skipper as far as his place in the Test team is concerned.
Bumrah reckoned that it would be a good wicket to bat on once the openers are able to play out the initial period, given the overcast conditions in Sydney at the start of the game.
Rohit, however, wasn't the only change in the Indian team. Pacer Prasidh Krishna was playing his first Test in a year as he replaced injured Akash Deep, who was ruled out due to a back issue. Australia, on the other hand, also made a change by bringing in Beau Webster for out-of-form Mitchell Marsh as the world Test champions will be keen to land the first blow with the ball under helpful conditions.
Playing XIs
India: Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant(w), Ravindra Jadeja, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Jasprit Bumrah(c), Prasidh Krishna, Mohammed Siraj
Australia: Sam Konstas, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Travis Head, Beau Webster, Alex Carey(w), Pat Cummins(c), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Scott Boland
