The world deserves to know who made call on Rohit’s omission

Rohit Sharma during the third Test against Australia in Brisbane last month. Pic/Getty Images

The worst kept secret in the cricketing world was finally out in the open on Friday morning when Jasprit Bumrah, and not Rohit Sharma, waited for Pat Cummins at the toss to set the ball rolling in the final Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground. By late Thursday evening local time, it was obvious that Rohit would not play the series decider against Australia, though even 24 hours later, there was no official word on the sequence of events that led to this unprecedented move in Indian cricket.

Never before has the Indian captain sat out a Test where he has been available for selection. All stakeholders of the sport in India deserved to know how and by whom this call was made. Was it Rohit who offered to skip this game because he has only made 31 runs in five innings this series? Or was he nudged in that direction by head coach Gautam Gambhir and selector on tour, Ajit Agarkar, also the chairman of the selection panel?

If India don't make the final of the World Test Championship, as looks likely at this stage with Australia needing only one win in three matches to set up a Lord's clash with South Africa, it's more than possible that Rohit has played his last Test. If that's the case, it's a shame that he didn't get a better send-off. Admittedly, international sport might not be the stage for emotion or sentiment, but there is a certain sensitivity with which seismic moves need to be handled, and that definitely hasn't been the case this time around.

Rohit has been a wonderful ambassador for Indian cricket and has reshaped the approach and mindset of the team over the last two and a half-plus years since he became the all-format captain. Despite his travails over the last three and a half months, he will go down as one of India's more influential Test openers since taking over that role late in his career, in October 2019, and a terrific leader with great tactical smarts.

"It was an emotional decision because he has been captain for a long time," Rishabh Pant, India's top-scorer with 40, said at the end of Friday's play. "We see him as a leader of the team. There are some decisions that you are not involved in, they are the (team) management's calls. I was not part of that conversation. I can't explain more than that."

Rohit spent about half an hour on the outfield with his colleagues in the morning before leaving for the dressing room, and was caught on camera sitting in the viewing area, watching the proceedings poker-faced. One can only imagine what must be going through his mind, irrespective of whose decision it was for him not to play this game.