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Indian T20 World Cup-winning captain and currently rested skipper, Rohit Sharma made it clear that he has not retired from the longest format of the game and that it was his own call to step aside from captaining the side on the 5th India versus Australia Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) Test match.
The 37-year-old made the comments during an interaction with the Star Sports broadcaster network amid the proceedings of the second day of the fifth test, with Jasprit Bumrah currently leading the Indian team.
“I did what was in the interest of the team. You can't just continue to play without performing. However, this is not a retirement decision and I am not going anywhere,” Sharma said to his interviewers.
Emphasizing this further at the Sydney Cricket Ground, the cricketer shared that he had discussed his lack of form with head coach Gautam Gambhir and chief selector Ajit Agarkar and had then opted to step aside from the squad for the currently ongoing match.
Moreover, he also stated that he did not fear the calls for his retirement coming from "a guy with a mic, pen, or laptop," seemingly taking a dig at commentators and Internet criticms.
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"It was my understanding that I should tell the coach and the selector and they backed my call,” Rohit Sharma said, stressing the need for in-form players.
Incidentally, despite his absence, Sharma has been quite active behind the scenes. Visuals from the first day showed him hooked on to the proceedings of the match and even jumping out of his seat nervously when Virat Kohli almost lost his wicket.
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Meanwhile, the Indian batting team again struggled to get past the Australian bowling attack and lost all of its ten wickets at 185 runs. Fortunately, Team India’s bowling attack led by an aggressive Bumrah has also scalped 6 wickets off Australia at 137 runs, at the time of the filing of this report.
