After suffering a humiliating loss to New Zealand in the Test series at home, the Indian cricket team has received another blow ahead of their Australia tour. India is set to face Australia in a five-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy for the 2024-25 season, with the first Test match starting in Perth. However, Captain Rohit Sharma will miss the opening match due to personal reasons.
The Times of India reports that Rohit Sharma will skip the first match of the series in Perth and will not travel with the team. Head coach Gautam Gambhir was asked about leadership duties in Rohit’s absence before the team’s departure for Australia. He confirmed that since Jasprit Bumrah is the vice-captain, he will lead the team in Perth if Rohit is unavailable. He further said that the situation had not been confirmed yet, but they hoped Rohit would be available.
When questioned about former Australian captain Ricky Ponting’s comments, Gambhir sarcastically responded by saying, “What does Ricky Ponting have to do with Indian cricket?”He remarked that he had no concerns regarding Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, and suggested that Ponting should direct his attention to his own Australian team instead of commenting on Indian players. Gambhir emphasized that both Rohit and Kohli remain passionate about the game, and their hunger for runs and success is still strong. They have delivered exceptional performances for India over the years.
If India draws or loses the series, they will have to depend on the outcomes of other teams to secure a spot in the final.
Here is the Indian squad for the upcoming series:
Rohit Sharma (Captain)
Yashasvi Jaiswal
Virat Kohli
Shubman Gill
KL Rahul
Rishabh Pant (Wicketkeeper)
Sarfaraz Khan
Abhimanyu Easwaran
Dhruv Jurel (Wicketkeeper)
Ravichandran Ashwin
Ravindra Jadeja
Jasprit Bumrah (Vice-Captain)
Mohammed Siraj
Akash Deep
Prasidh Krishna
Harshit Rana
Nitish Kumar Reddy
Washington Sundar
