He played only three matches in that series.
Former India head coach Ravi Shastri has opined that he would not have allowed skipper Rohit Sharma to drop himself before the fifth and final match of the 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) series.
“I told him, if I was coach you would have never not played that last Test match. You would have played that last Test match because the series wasn’t over,” he said in a recent ICC interview.
India skipper Rohit Sharma decided not to feature in India’s playing XI in the final match of the BGT series. This came after a dismal form in his previous six red-ball matches, where he put up only 122 runs in 11 innings.
However, Shastri believes Rohit should not have stepped away while India trailed 2-1 against Australia. Even if he was going through a lean patch, he shouldn’t have opted out of the final Test.
“And I’m not someone who threw in the towel with the scoreline 2-1. If your mindset is you feel you are [not in form], that’s not the stage, you leave a team,” he stated.
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Shastri also hailed the 38-year-old as a “match-winner.” He emphasised that Rohit could have played a small cameo, which might have helped India to draw that BGT series.
“That was a 30-40 run game and that’s exactly what I told him. The pitch was so spicy in Sydney. That series would have been level. Whatever kind of form he was in, he’s a match-winner,” added the former coach.
Notably, this was India’s first loss in BGT after winning it back-to-back in 2018 and 2021. With this, India also failed to secure a place in the World Test Championship (WTC) final, after two consecutive appearances in 2021 and 2023.
The opener recently declared his retirement from the red-ball format. He scored 4,301 runs in 67 Test matches, including 12 tons. Rohit also holds the record for hitting the second-most sixes for India in Tests (88) after former batter Virender Sehwag (91).
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