India's captain Rohit Sharma walks off the field after losing his wicket during play on the second day of the fourth cricket test between Australia and India at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne, Australia, Friday, Dec. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)Former India player Irfan Pathan did not mince his words while discussing India skipper Rohit Sharma’s form in the ongoing Border Gavaskar series, saying that if he was not the skipper, he wouldn’t find a place in the playing XI.
“A player who has made about 20,000 runs — yet the way Rohit is struggling now, it seems his form is not supporting him at all. What’s happening now is that he is the captain, so he is playing. If he were not the captain, he might not be playing right now. You would have had a set team. KL Rahul would have been playing at the top. (Yashasvi) Jaiswal would have been there. Shubman Gill would have been there,” Pathan said.
“If we talk about reality, considering how he is struggling with the bat, there might not have been a place for him in the playing XI. But because he is the captain, and you want to win the next match to draw the series, he stays in the team,” the former pacer added.
Rohit hasn’t had the best of times in the longest format this season, scoring 42 runs in four innings against Bangladesh and only 91 runs across three games against New Zealand, both series at home.
In the ongoing series, he has just scored 3, 6, 10, 3, and 9 in his 5 innings.
“His form is so poor. Even in India, even before coming here, he wasn’t scoring runs, and he still hasn’t scored runs. This is a very disappointing scene when I see Rohit Sharma batting,” Pathan said.
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