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Team India on Monday, December 30, suffered a crushing defeat against Australia to go down 1-2 in the five-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) 2024-25. After the loss, skipper Rohit Sharma called it “mentally disturbing”, he also spoke revealed the story behind dropping Shubman Gill, who has been in fine form.
“Look, I had a chat with him. There’s no way when you’re leaving someone out, for whatever reason it is, you will have a chat. And the chat with him was clear that he was not dropped. We just wanted to have that extra bit of cushion in the bowling,” Rohit Sharma has said at the post-match press conference. Listening to Rohit’s explanation, former India cricketer and legend Sunil Gavaskar has hit back at him, questioning that “dropping and omitting” is same.
Omitted or dropped, both are the same: Sunil Gavaskar hits out at Rohit Sharma
Speaking after the completion of the Boxing Day Test, Gavaskar minced no words when he was asked of his opinions on Rohit Sharma’s statement. "How much bowling did you give to Washington Sundar? What cushion are you talking about? The requirement of the team is perfectly fine. You need to take decisions based on that, but you left him (Gill) out of the team, you can only call it dropped in whichever language you might speak," he responded on Rohit Sharma's statement.
"You can say you omitted or dropped him, both are the same. Omit looks different, drop looks different, and left out looks different. I am talking about English but in the end, that guy was sitting in the dugout and was not on the ground," Gavaskar added. "I cannot say what will be a big decision as I don't know what sort of discussions happen in the team environment. I only want to say that your batting was failing and you dropped a batter, Shubman Gill, for this match. You dropped Shubman Gill just because you (Rohit Sharma) wanted to open and KL Rahul had to come at No. 3," he responded.
Gavaskar further highlighted Gill's score in the pink-ball Test in Adelaide where he scored 30 runs in both innings. "Shubman Gill scored 30-odd runs in both innings in Adelaide. He didn't play in the first Test and got out for one or two because of the mistake he made in Brisbane. Will you drop him for that? You did that and see what was the result," Gavaskar added.
