Popular Bollywood actor Farhan Akhtar heaped praise on Indian skipper Rohit Sharma for his decision to opt out of fifth Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test match at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Notably, Rohit has been getting a lot of criticism for his poor show in the ongoing Test series down under. The opening batter has only been able to score 31 runs in three games with one double digit score. Now, India are also on the verge of losing the Border-Gavaskar Trophy after 10 years as Australia took a lead of 2-1 after winning the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne.
With the Border-Gavaskar Trophy and World Test Championship final at stake, Rohit Sharma decided to opt out of the fifth Test for the team’s benefit, with Jasprit Bumrah taking over as skipper in his absence. Applauding his brave decision and ‘selflessness’, Farhan Akhtar shared a post on his social media with a caption “Now here’s a guy who’s putting his teams chances of a win ahead of himself finding form and instead of being applauded for his selflessness, the majority is tearing him down. Ask yourself.. why would anyone do this again if this is how the world responds to a man thinking of the larger cause than his own glory?” Rohit's wife Ritika Sajdeh also reacted to the post with a teary eyed emoji.
More power to you: Vidya Balan applauds Rohit Sharma for his selflessness
Along with Farhan Akhtar, another Bollywood superstar Vidya Balan also hailed Rohit Sharma for putting the Indian team ahead and deciding to opt out of the Sydney Test amid poor form despite being a captain. She shared a post on her social media with a caption, “Rohit Sharma, what a SUPERSTAR!! To take a pause & catch your breath requires courage … More power to you … Respect.”
Talking about the match at the SCG, India bowled Australia out of 181 runs, taking a lead of four runs in the first innings of the Sydney Test. After that, Rishabh Pant scored a quickfire 61(33) runs in the Indian second innings. India lost six wickets for 141 runs at the close of day two with a lead of 145 runs.
