Published: Jan 03, 2025, 11:08 AM (IST)
Edited: Jan 03, 2025, 11:09 AM (IST)
Former Australian cricketer Mark Taylor criticized India for calling Rohit Sharma’s exclusion as ‘resting’ him. This remark was made after Jasprit Bumrah had announced that Rohit had chosen to take a break from the final Test of the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25.
Mark Taylor criticized Bumrah for what he said, calling it an unfaithful remark. Taylor also said that India should not hide the fact that Rohit was obviously removed from the playing XI because of his below-par batting performance.
“To be honest, that’s, what do I call that. That’s once again, sidestepping the point. The bottom line is the captain of a country does not opt out for the final Test match, the final deciding Test match of a series. He has been dropped and I don’t know why they just don’t say he’s been dropped. That doesn’t mean he’s dropped forever, it means he’s missing this match because he is out of form. That is unfortunately professional sports,” Mark Taylor said on Triple M Cricket.
In order for in-form batters to play in the final Test match of the series, Bumrah called Rohit Sharma as “our captain” (India’s captain), and claimed that this decision to not play in this match had come by himself.
“Yeah, the chat was pretty good. You know, we’re trying to keep the positives in mind and keep the learnings as well. Obviously, our captain, you know, has shown his leadership as well. He’s opted to rest in this game. So that shows that, you know, there’s a lot of unity in our team, there’s no selfishness that, you know, whatever is in the team’s best interest, we are looking to do that. Two changes, Rohit has rested, Akash Deep is injured and Prasidh Krishna is in,” Jasprit Bumrah said during the toss at the SCG.
India needs to win this final Test match of this series if they wish to keep the Border-Gavaskar Trophy and have any chance to play in the World Test Championship (WTC) Finals, that are set to be held at the iconic Lord’s stadium.
