Indian captain Rohit Sharma is under massive scrutiny for his below-par performance in the ongoing BGT Down Under. Having failed with the bat since his return to the Test side, Rohit’s future in the whites has started to look gloomy, with Irfan Pathan saying that wearing the captain’s hat has been saving his place in the Test team.

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India lost the fourth Test at the MCG by 184 runs, conceding the lead they took with a staggering win in the series opener in Perth, where Rohit remained absent for personal reasons and ace seamer Jasprit Bumrah captained in his place. Rohit, however, returned to the XI from the second game at the Adelaide Oval, where Australia won by ten wickets. 

India was on the back foot in the next two matches at the Gabba and MCG, respectively. Though the third Test ended in a draw, thanks to several rain interruptions, the hosts beat India at the ‘G’ for the first time since 2011, taking a 2-1 lead in the five-match series.

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Besides the results, Rohit’s poor performance across five innings has been no short of an embarrassment; having scored just 31 runs on this tour, Rohit not finding his groove at all is a worrying point for the veteran batter and the team management.

Amidst reports of the selectors contemplating Rohit’s future in the longer format beyond the fifth and final BGT Test at the SCG, starting January 3, the right-handed batter will continue as the captain and an opener in Sydney. 

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Pathan, a cricketer-turned-broadcaster, explains what, despite his horrible show with the bat, helped Rohit retain his place in the XI.

What’s going wrong with Rohit’s form?

“A player who has made about 20,000 runs—yet the way Rohit is struggling now, it seems his form is not supporting him at all,” Pathan said on Star Sports following the MCG Test loss.

“What’s happening now is that he is the captain, so he is playing. If he were not the captain, he might not be playing right now. You would have had a set team. K.L. Rahul would have been playing at the top, Jaiswal would have been there, and Shubman Gill would have been there. If we talk about reality, considering how he is struggling with the bat, there might not have been a place for him in the playing XI,” he continued. 

Now, with Rohit back at the top after a few failures down the order, KL Rahul is demoted to number three, with Shubman Gill out of the XI. Considering India has to win the next Test in Sydney to give them any chance of qualifying for the WTC Final 2025, they might press the panic button, bringing in Gill and continuing playing Bumrah despite fearing burnout. 

“But because he is the captain, and you want to win the next match to draw the series, he stays in the team. 

“But his form is so poor. Even in India, even before coming here, he wasn’t scoring runs, and he still hasn’t scored runs. This is a very disappointing scene when I see Rohit Sharma batting.”

“Because whenever I see Rohit Sharma batting, I always want to see him bat, whether it is Test cricket or one-day cricket. But now, his form, the way he is going forward, whether it is his mindset or the coordination with his body, I can’t see that at all,” he added.

(With inputs from agencies)