NEW DELHI: India captain Rohit Sharma‘s woeful form continued with another dismissal for a low score in the Boxing Day Test against Australia at the MCG on Friday.
Rohit was dismissed by his Aussie counterpart Pat Cummins for 3 adding to his scores of 3, 6 and 10 in this series.
In a viral video, former national chief selector MSK Prasad, while commentating during Australia innings in the Boxing Day Test, claimed that Rohit’s poor form with the bat is also affecting his captaincy.
Responding to co-commentator Mark Nicholas, who raised the issue of Rohit’s captaincy, Prasad says, “Yeah, that’s a valid point Mark you raised about Rohit Sharma’s captaincy. Heading into this series, we had a three-match series against New Zealand, it was pathetic, it had never happened in the history of Indian cricket that we lost back to back three games and Rohit was totally sorted out and had got absolutely no runs in the series.”
In the three Tests against the Kiwis, Rohit had scores of 2, 52, 0, 8, 18, 11 as India had to suffer the embarrassment of a Test series whitewash at home.
Prasad continues in the video, “So he (Rohit) comes into this series, he didn’t play the first game, Bumrah led the side very well, so he comes at the backdrop of continuous failures. I personally feel that has got a direct impact, if a captain comes with some sort of form that has a direct impact on the side. And he (Rohit) comes after a series of failures and that has clearly shown the way he has led the side also. He has not been proactive on many occasions.”
Rohit missed the first Test in Perth with Jasprit Bumrah leading the side and India won by 295 runs.
Rohit returned for the Adelaide Test that India lost by 10 wickets and the Brisbane Test ended in a draw, largely due to rain.
Prasad continues in the video, “If you see in this Test match itself, he had 11 overs bowled by Mohammed Siraj and Jasprit Bumrah on the trot, especially when Sam (Konstas) was going hammer and tongs. But that has been the case with his captaincy, he’s been struggling a bit both with his bat and also in captaincy.”
