Former India player Sunil Gavaskar opined on skipper Rohit Sharma opting out of the fifth Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) 2024-25 Test against Australia that started on Friday, January 3 in Sydney as well. He also added that some of the senior players may have been consulted, along with the coach, chief selector, and Rohit himself, before taking the final call on the playing XI as well.

Talking about Rohit’s exclusion on Star Sports, Gavaskar said [via India Today]: “At the end of the day, he’s also part of the selection committee. What happens in Indian cricket is there is a selection committee which chooses the squad to go to travel overseas. Then when you come overseas, the captain, the coach, and I think if there’s one selector, they generally form the selection committee. I believe the chairman of the selection committee, Ajit Agarar is here in town, so he would have been part of the call that was taken. Maybe some of the senior players in the team would have been asked.”

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Sunil Gavaskar also believes the Melbourne Test of the ongoing series may have been Rohit Sharma’s final match in Test cricket. With Team India not having any more Test matches after the Australia series in the ongoing World Test Championship (WTC) cycle, Gavaskar added
that the management will likely look for someone else to lead the side in the 2025-27 cycle as well.

“To me, it looks that the Melbourne Test would be Rohit Sharma’s last game. The new cycle of the World Test Championship will start from the England series, so they will look to have somebody who will be available for 2027 final. Whether India gets to the final or not is another matter, but I think that’s what the selection committee will do. Therefore maybe we’ve probably seen Rohit Sharma for the last time in Test cricket,” Sunil Gavaskar concluded.