Former India coach Ravi Shastri revealed why he did not ask India captain Jasprit Bumrah about Rohit Sharma ‘s absence at the toss. Shastri opened up about it after former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar complained about it. Manjrekar was critical of Shastri not asking Bumrah the question on Rohit at the toss on Friday during the final Test at SCG. Shastri said even before he could pose that question, Bumrah had started speaking about Rohit. Bumrah claimed Rohit opted out on his own.  “Our captain has shown his leadership; he’s opted to rest in this game,” Bumrah said at the toss. “So that shows there’s a lot of unity in our team, there’s no selfishness, whatever is in the team’s best interest, we are looking to do that.”

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‘Jasprit Bumrah said the captain opted to sit out’

“Before I could even ask him (Jasprit Bumrah), he said the captain opted to sit out and said the team would be stronger if Shubman Gill played. It can happen when you are out of sorts, you are mentally not there, and you don’t have runs under your belt,” Shastri said this on commentary.

Shastri also went on to call it a ‘brave’ decision taken by Rohit. 

“It still is a brave call for a captain to own up and say, ‘I’m prepared to take the bench in this game.’ If there was a home season coming up he might’ve thought of carrying on, but I think he might just pull the plug at the end of this Test,” he added. 

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LATEST UPDATE

At the time of filing the copy, India were on the brink of an allout. They were 175 for nine.