Indian National Cricket Team captain Rohit Sharma is all set to miss the opening match of Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 against Australian National Cricket Team.
Team India and Team Australia will play each other in the first Test of the five-match series in Perth from November 22 and Rohit Sharma will miss the crucial match.
Rohit Sharma will stay in Mumbai with his family
On Friday, November 15, Rohit Sharma and wife Ritika Sajdeh were blessed with their second child.
The Indian skipper has decided to stay with his family for a while longer and informed the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) that he will skip the first Test.
According to Times of India, the Indian National Cricket Team captain is likely to be available for the second Test of the series.
“Yes, Rohit Sharma will miss the first Test. He wants to spend more time with his family and his new born baby and the Indian cricket board fully respects his decision,” he said.
Jasprit Bumrah will lead India in the absence of Rohit Sharma
Jasprit Bumrah, the designated vice-captain of the team, will take over the leadership duties and lead the team after Rohit is out of the first test against Australia.
However, the biggest challenge for the Indian team management would be to complete the replacement of Rohit Sharma as an opener.
India head coach Gautam Gambhir had earlier said that they have named Abhimanyu Easwaran and KL Rahul as substitutes in the squad. According to reports, Rahul is the first candidate to partner with Yashasvi Jaiswal.
However, both Rahul and Easwaran failed miserably in the unofficial Test matches against Australia. Later, he dropped to the middle order and lost his place to Sarfaraz Khan after back-to-back failures.
On the other hand, Abhimanyu Easwaran is yet to make his debut for the Indian National Cricket Team but has played more than 100 first-class matches and scored 7674 runs. Prior to his failure against Australia A, he had scored four tons in four consecutive matches in domestic cricket.
Shubman Gill is injured as India take a double whammy
Apart from Rohit Sharma, India will also be missing the services of star No. 3 batsman Shubman Gill. Gill has been one of the team’s consistent performers and has been very impressive with the bat in 2024.
In 10 Test matches this year, he batted in 19 innings. In those innings, Gill scored 806 runs at an average of 47.41 with three centuries and three fifties and a best score of 119 not out.
Meanwhile, Shubman Gill suffered a thumb injury on Day 2 of the game simulation against India A in Perth.
After injuring his finger in a skid, he went for a scan and the results shocked the Indian team. It is learned that the star batsman has fractured his left thumb and will miss the first Test. But he is expected to recover in time for the second Test.
