Ravi Shastri Criticizes Rohit Sharma’s Test Exit: ‘Would Have Played Him in Final Match’

Ravi Shastri Criticizes Rohit Sharma’s Test Exit: Ravi Shastri, former head coach of the Indian men's cricket team, has disclosed he spoke to Rohit Sharma before he declared his retirement from Test matches. Shastri, who was the head coach during Rohit's journey to success, said he contacted the India captain to explain that he believed in him and he disagreed with how Rohit was treated in the last Test against Australia at Sydney Cricket Ground in January of this year.

Rohit Sharma dropped out of the oval for the series decider at SCG. Out of form, having registered scores of 3, 6, 10, 3 and 9, the manager reasoned that the series was still alive; India's better of without him playing. Instead India replaced Rohit with Shubman Gill, unfortunately that wasn't enough, Australia (6 wickets) won the Test match to take the series 3-1 finally regaining the Border-Gavaskar Trophy after 8 years. Shastri was upon further discussion on the ICC Review show, stated that he would never have dropped Rohit to let him go, he said that to the 38 year old.

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"I saw Rohit a lot at the toss. At the toss, you don't get enough time to speak. Though I did put my hand on his shoulder in one of the games. I think it was in Mumbai, and I told him, if I was the 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. And I'm not someone who threw in the towel with the scoreline 2-1. If your mindset is you feel you are… that's not the stage, you leave a team."

At the time, Rohit accepted full responsibility. He publicly expressed that the choice to not play the Sydney Test was his decision alone, however, if Shastri's next words suggest anything, it may very well have been Gautam Gambhir's decision as is current head coach. Rohit was all over the place during the Australia series, looking like he was at sixes and sevens, regardless of what position he was batting in. During his last Test, he attempted to tough it out but fell to Pat Cummins.

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Yet, Shastri, who when Rohit started opening for India in September 2019, helped Rohit find his second wind in Tests, is of the opinion that a player like Rohit needed one good knock and the conditions and pitch at SCG could have been that match.

"That was a 30-40 run game. And that's exactly what I told him. The pitch was so spicy in Sydney. Whatever kind of form he was in, he's a match-winner. If he had gone, sensed the situation, sensed the condition and smashed it for even 35-40 at the top, you never know. That series would have been level. But that's each one to his own. Other people have different styles. This would have been my style, and I let him know it. It's sitting in my heart for a long time. I had to get it out. And I told him that," Shastri said.

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