Despite Rohit’s long-standing difficulties in the game’s longest format, Irfan Pathan, who had interviewed him in Sydney, disclosed that the broadcasters had to support the then-India captain. The former cricket player turned analyst acknowledged that the team management would not have included Rohit in the starting lineup if he hadn’t been the captain of the Asian powerhouses.
Inside information about Rohit Sharma’s well-known interview at the Sydney Cricket Ground during the fifth and final Test match in the Border-Gavaskar series 2024–25 has been made public by former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan. Due to poor form, Rohit, the Test captain at the time, had withdrawn from the Sydney Test.
In the three Test matches he played during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, Rohit, who had also missed the series opener due to paternity leave, managed just 31 runs. As India sought to draw level, his concerning average of 6.20—the lowest ever by a touring captain in Australia (minimum five innings)—escalated rumours that he would be left out of the series decider.
“Rohit Sharma is an amazing player in white-ball cricket, but his average in Test cricket that year was 6, so we said that if he was not the captain, he would not have had a place in the team, and this is true,” Irfan stated in a clip provided by Lallantop.
People claim that we gave Rohit Sharma more help than was necessary. Naturally, you won’t treat someone badly when they come to do an interview on your broadcasting station, right? Since you invited him, you will act civilly. Naturally, since Rohit was our guest, we had to be courteous when he arrived for the interview. That was related and stated that we were rooting for him, but we were the ones who recommended that he should continue to fight, but that he shouldn’t have been included in the starting lineup. He said, “He would have been dropped if he hadn’t been the team’s captain.
Rohit’s Test tour ended to being his last. After completing 67 Test matches with 4301 runs at an average of 40.58, he declared his retirement from the red-ball format on May 7. The Mumbai batsman has amassed 18 fifties and 12 Test hundreds.
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