File image of Rohit Sharma with Gautam Gambhir© BCCI
India head coach Gautam Gambhir attended a press conference on Monday before the team’s departure for Australia for the upcoming Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Team India is slated to play a five-match Test series against the mighty Aussies in Down Under, in order to keep their slim World Test Championship final hopes alive. The series will be a difficult yet crucial one as Rohit Sharma and co will be coming after suffering a humiliating 0-3 clean sweep against New Zealand in Test series at home.
Ahead of the highly-anticipated series against Australia, which will kick-start from November 22 in Perth, many reports have suggested that skipper Rohit is likely to miss the first match due to personal reasons.
However, head coach Gambhir has stated during the press conference that there’s still no official confirmation regarding Rohit’s absence.
“At the moment there’s no confirmation. Hopefully he will be available. We’ll let you know,” Gambhir told the press.
The head coach also stated that if Rohit misses the first match, then vice-captain and star pacer Jasprit Bumrah will be donning the captain’s hat.
Not just captaincy, Rohit’s absence will also open a gate for a new opener in the team. Regarding that role, Gambhir said, “If Rohit is not available, we have got (Abhimanyu) Easwaran and KL (Rahul) in Australia. We will take a call.”
Earlier, Australian batting great Ricky Ponting backed Jasprit Bumrah to shoulder the dual responsibility of spearheading the Indian pace attack as well as leading the team.
“Yeah, that (captaincy) is probably the hardest thing for him. I think that was always the question on Pat Cummins when he became the Australian Test captain as well,” Ponting had said during the ICC Review podcast.
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