Rohit Sharma breaks silence on being rested for SCG Test: 'This decision is not about retirement, I am not leaving'

Indian cricket team captain Rohit Sharma on Saturday finally broke the silence on sitting out of the ongoing fifth Test against Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Jasprit Bumrah is captaining India in the absence of Rohit, who has been struggling for form.

While there are reports that things are not well between head coach Gautam Gambhir and Rohit and that the BCCI selectors are looking to move on from the 37-year-old, Rohit Sharma said he is not going anywhere as things will not remain the same forever and he is hopeful of a strong comeback.

“This decision is not about retirement, I am not leaving. I am sitting out of this match because runs are not coming,” Rohit told Star Sports during Lunch break on Day 2 of the fifth Test. “There’s no guarantee poor form will continue after 5 months, and there’s no guarantee poor form will continue after 2 months. In cricket, we have seen life changes every day every minute every second I believe in myself that things will change. At the same time, I will have to be realistic as well.”

“Our life doesn’t change on the basis of what people write about us. We have played cricket for so many years, these people cannot decide when we should leave, when we should not play, or when we should sit out, or when we should captain.”

Rohit Sharma: ‘I stood down’

Rohit Sharma also clarified that sitting out of the SCG Test against Australia was a conscious decision he took on his own.

“I stood down, that is what I would say,” Rohit revealed. “The chat that I had with coach and selectors was that I’m not scoring runs, we need players in form. Simple fact: you can’t carry out-of-form players for too long.

“It was my duty to inform the coach and selector about my thoughts. They said, ‘You’ve been playing for a long time, you take the call’. It was a difficult choice but for the team’s sake it was the right decision to take the team forward. I took the decision after coming to Sydney. We just got two days, one was New Year’s, didn’t want to tell the selectors about this during the New Year. I tried a lot but nothing was happening so it was important for me to step aside,” he added.

Rohit has only scored 31 runs in five innings across three Tests in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Series.