Indian captain Rohit Sharma breaks his silence on retirement rumours and said he “stood down” from the ongoing fifth test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Sydney on the back of his poor form.
The Indian star's responsibilities were handed over to bowling stalwart Jasprit Bumrah, who led the Men in Blue to a victory in the first test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Perth.
“I have not retired. I stood down; that is what I would say. Basically, the chat that I had with the coach and the selector was very simple. I am not able to score runs; there is no form; it is an important match, and we need a player with form,” Sharma told Star Sports.
“So you cannot carry a lot of out-of-form players in the team. This simple thing was going on in my mind. I am not going anywhere.
“I wanted to tell the coach and the selector that this is what is going on in my mind. They backed my decision. They said that you have been playing for so many years. You know what you are doing,” he added.
The Mumbaikar also showered praises on Jasprit Bumrah for his leadership skills in his absence.
“The way he (Bumrah) sets standards with the ball, he is absolute class. When I saw him for the first time in 2013, his graph has gone really high ever since and has gone from strength to strength,” he said.
Sharma has struggled for runs in this series, scoring a mere 31 runs over the course of five innings after joining the team following the Perth test. His exclusion from the team paved the way for Shubman Gill in the series-deciding fifth match.
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