‘If he was not the captain…’ Irfan Pathan admits ex-players were compelled to support Rohit Sharma during BGT

There was always more to just Rohit Sharma’s random Test retirement announcement sometime during IPL 2025. While it was always on the cards, considering how everything shaped up in the lead-up to that, Rohit’s former teammate and now a broadcaster, Irfan Pathan, has dropped a bombshell in the latest revelation. Barring Rohit’s poor form with the bat leading up to India’s away tour of Australia last winter, his decision to sit out of the final Test at the SCG and his infamous interview with Star Sports during the Sydney Test were where it all started.

What happened in that interview?

Star Sports presenter Jatin Sapru was hosting a mid-inning show from the ground, with Pathan joining him as the expert. Rohit joined them soon after for a quick interview, detailing why he sat out of the final Test. While many assumed that the selectors had dropped him for his horrible form on that tour, Rohit cleared the air, admitting that he decided to sit himself out (for the same reason), mentioning he wanted to prioritise the team benefit first.

Although that did help him garner some social media attention, the Indian Team failed to take any advantage of the playing XI as they lost the match inside three days and surrendered the BGT for the first time in a decade.

Struggling with form in red-ball cricket, Rohit’s numbers were sending worrying signs to him and the team heading into the Australian tour. Across eight Tests played in the home season, Rohit scored just 164 runs, including just one fifty. Even on the tour Down Under, Rohit managed 31 runs across five innings (three Tests), averaging just over six – the lowest by a visiting captain in Australia (min. five innings).

Speaking on Lallantop, a video clip of which they shared on their social media handles on Wednesday (Aug 13), Pathan is on record saying, “Rohit Sharma is an amazing player in white-ball cricket, but his average in Test cricket that year was 6, so we said that if he was not the captain, he would not have had a place in the team, and this is true,” he said.

Moreover, Pathan didn’t mince his words in admitting that, knowing how bad a form Rohit was in that series, which eventually cost India a chance to complete a hat-trick of series wins Down Under, he was among those who claimed that had Rohit not been the captain, he would not have made the playing XI.

"People say that we supported Rohit Sharma more than necessary. Of course, when someone comes to interview on your broadcasting channel, you will not misbehave with them, right? You have invited him, so you will behave politely. When Rohit came to interview, we were, of course, polite, and we had to show that because he was our guest. So that was connected and said we were supporting him, but it was we who said...we had said that he should keep fighting, but that said, he should not have had a place in the playing XI. If he was not the captain of the team, he would have been dropped," Pathan continued.