Jasprit Bumrah to lead India in Sydney Test as Rohit Sharma sits out; Shubman Gill and Prasidh Krishna return to the squad

India captain Rohit Sharma decided to sit out of the playing XI for the fifth and final Test match against Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series. Jasprit Bumrah took on the role of leading the team at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Shubman Gill was chosen to replace Rohit and will be batting at No. 3, with KL Rahul returning as an opener.

Speculations on Rohit were rife since the loss in Melbourne, where his fortunes failed to change despite returning as an opener, which sparked a rejig in a rather settled top-order line-up. An in-form KL Rahul was forced to bat one down while Gill was benched.

The rumours eventually peaked on the eve of the game when Gautam Gambhir dropped a cryptic remark in the presser, saying the conditions at the SCG will dictate the XI. Later, Rohit was seen absent from the slip cordon, where Virat Kohli was positioned at first slip, when India had their fielding drill in Sydney.

This is the second time Bumrah is leading the Indian side during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series. Earlier in Perth, the fast bowler had led India to an emphatic win as Rohit had missed the game owing to the birth of his second child. Bumrah's maiden experience as a Test skipper, however, came during the 2022 rescheduled Test against England in Birmingham, where the side had lost to concede the lead.

Rohit Sharma becomes first Indian captain to be dropped midway through a series

Battered by extra bounce and seam movement and scathing criticism of his leadership, Rohit, whose career as a Test cricketer seems headed for a dispiriting climax, became the first Indian captain to be dropped from the line-up in the middle of an international series.

The 37-year-old came under fire through the course of the series where he scored just 31 runs in five innings, record an average of just 6.20, the worst-ever by a touring skipper in Australia. The tally added to his existing woeful run in the format since September, during which he scored just 164 runs across three series, comprising just one fifty and an average of just a tick over 10.

This was also the first time an international skipper incurred this fate since 2014, when Pakistan's Misbah-ul-Haq dropped himself from the third ODI against Australia as Shahid Afridi led the team in his stead. In the same year, Dinesh Chandimal of Sri Lanka decided to sit out of the team's final three matches in the T20 World Cup, including the semi-final and final, with Lasith Malinga filling in as a stand-in skipper.

The first-ever instance of a captain getting dropped from the XI during an international series happened in the 1974 Ashes when England's Mike Denness opted out of the fourth Test. However, he had returned in the following game in Adelaide, scored a fifty, and followed it up with a valiant 181 in the final Test at the MCG, where the tourists won by an innings.

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