Rohit Sharma, Gautam Gambhir Avoid Each Other; India Captain Seeks Support From Bumrah, Agarkar

Rohit Sharma, Gautam Gambhir Avoid Each Other: About seven months ago, Rohit Sharma had become the toast of the nation when he ended India's agonisingly long wait for a World Cup win. Rewind to 19 November 2023, and the whole country shed a tear watching Rohit struggle to hold back his after Australia beat India in the final of the ODI World Cup at home. From that emotional evening in Ahmedabad, for Rohit to have made one final push in a format that many believed he was washed up and lift the trophy took a remarkable effort. In the process, he changed his game entirely. At 36, Rohit introduced a brand-new attacking form of batting to the world that he, Indian cricket and its fans began to enjoy.

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But as they say, all good things have to come to an end. Two days into the new year, Rohit finds himself isolated, literally and figuratively. For the last two months, he has looked at sixes and sevens, struggling for form, and with runs hard to come by, for the first time in history, as long as the memory can serve right, an Indian captain is going to be dropped from the Playing XI, let alone in a Test match carrying the magnitude of a series as big as the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. 'Rest' may be nothing more than a word designed to sugar-coat that Rohit Sharma, captain of the Indian team, does not deserve a place in India's Test XI.

When India's head coach, Gautam Gambhir, refused to answer Rohit's participation in the Playing XI, it was all the confirmation the world needed. And if that wasn't enough, the growing distance and tension between the captain and coach underlines it all too well. As per a report in the PTI, Rohit and Gambhir were not on talking terms the entire match eve, with each individual on the other side of the ground.

After the two chairs were arranged for India's pre-match press conference, the speculation grew that Rohit and Gambhir would finally have a joint press conference. After all, this is something Rohit and Rahul Dravid often do. Alas! Once again one out of the two goes solo. Still, India's selection drama reached a feverish pitch when Rohit and Gambhir were seen exchanging no words with each other.

"It was around half past one when Gautam Gambhir walked towards the centre strip at the Sydney Cricket Ground with Jasprit Bumrah in tow. A few minutes later, Rohit Sharma also joined the duo in the middle but there was hardly any communication between the head coach and the designated captain," the PTI report stated.

"All present at the SCG witnessed a complete communication breakdown between skipper and the head coach. There were already enough indications but the developments on Thursday made one thing as clear as daylight. Rohit Sharma is no longer in coach Gautam Gambhir’s scheme of things after scoring just one second innings half-century in the eight Tests he has played this season."

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Rohit approaches Jasprit Bumrah and Ajit Agarkar

Clearly, all that's happened around and with him is now hurting Rohit, so he finds comfort with vice-captain Jasprit Bumrah and BCCI selection committee chairperson Ajit Agarkar. Such is the alignment between the captain and the coach. They all have maintained that there is a healthy camaraderie and that right from the time the coach took over, the coach and the players were on the same page.Several external developments have altered the scenario, such as India's string of poor Test performances and the heated dressing-room discussions that became public, and things are clearly other than theirs.

Rohit got lost a day prior to deciding the series against Australia. He walked in almost 35 minutes behind the main batsmen without his gear. Rohit took glove and sweated while it happened; what happened after that provided first-class tear-jerker material, though. For about the next 30-odd minutes while he toiled in practice, Rohit was all over the place. Straight deliveries thrice found their way to the stumps behind his back. For someone like Rohit, brought up to make a career out of having an extra second, seeing him struggle against T Dilip's throwdown to get the bat down in time became excruciatingly painful.

"Once Rohit was done with his training, he along with Bumrah and Agarkar left the nets but Gambhir stayed back. It is learnt that during this meeting after training it was decided that Rohit Sharma would be 'rested', which in Indian cricket parlance means 'dropped by intimation'," the report added.

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