Mumbai, May 17: Had he been the India coach on the previous tour of Australia, Ravi Shastri he would not have allowed captain Rohit Sharma to drop himself from the Sydney Test despite loss of form.Rohit had missed the first Test for personal reasons and did not feature in the last game of the series, taking a “selfless decision” as he could manage only 31 runs in the five innings he played on that 2024-25 tour.
India had lost the Test series 1-3.
Shastri said he spoke to Rohit during one of the IPL games this season and let him know how he would have handled the situation in Australia.
“I saw Rohit a lot at the toss. At the toss, you don’t get enough time to speak. Though I did put my hand on his shoulder in one of the games. I think it was in Mumbai and told him, if I was coach you would have never not played that last Test match.
You would have played that last Test match because the series wasn’t over,” Shastri said on the latest edition of the ICC Review.
Rohit recently retired from the Test format, having quit T20 format earlier.
“And I’m not someone who threw in the towel with the scoreline 2-1. If your mindset is you feel you are… that’s not the stage, you leave a team,” said the former India head coach.
Shastri said he would’ve pushed for Rohit’s inclusion in Sydney.
“That was a 30-40 run game. And that’s exactly what I told him. The pitch was so spicy in Sydney. Whatever kind of form he was in, he’s a match-winner,” said Shastri.
“If he had gone, sensed the situation, sensed the condition and smashed it for even 35-40 at the top, you never know. That series would have been level. But that’s each one to his own.
“Other people have different styles. This would have been my style and I let him know it. It’s sitting in my heart for a long time. I had to get it out. And I told him that.”
Both Rohit and Virat Kohli have quit the traditional format ahead of India’s tour of England, marking the beginning of the new World Test Championship cycle.