Rohit Sharma likely to lose Test captaincy after West Indies series

Another failure would most probably end the Test career of the 36-year-old opener who has scored 390 runs at an average of 35.45 in seven matches as captain of the team. The Mumbai batter has crossed the 50-run mark only once in his 11 innings in charge of the team.

Rohit’s captaincy and selection calls were questioned as India took on Australia in the WTC Final 2023 at The Oval in London. He looked clueless and let the game slip after Travis Head played a counter-attacking innings and stitched a 285-run partnership with Steve Smith for the fourth wicket.

A PTI source has said that Rohit won’t be sacked immediately, however, a bad outing against South Africa could see an end to his Test career.

“These are baseless stuff that Rohit will be removed from captaincy. Yes, whether he will last the whole two-year WTC cycle is a big question as he would be nearly 38 when the third edition ends in 2025.

“As of now, I believe that Shiv Sunder Das and his colleagues will have to take a call after the two Tests and looking at his batting form.

“After West Indies, we have no Tests till December-end when the team travels to South Africa. So there is enough time for selectors to deliberate and take a decision. By then the fifth selector (new chairman) will also join the panel and a decision can be taken, he added.

‘Rohit did not want to take Test captaincy’

Further, the source revealed that Rohit Sharma wasn’t interested in taking the Test captaincy job after Virat Kohli stepped down in January 2022. Then BCCI president Sourav Ganguly and secretary Jay Shah had to convince the star batter.

“The two top men at that time (former president Sourav Ganguly and secretary Jay Shah) had to convince him to take up the role once KL Rahul failed to impress as a captain in South Africa,” the source told PTI.