• Source:JND
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IND vs AUS 5th Test: Indian skipper Rohit Sharma is all set to be dropped from the fifth and the last Test of the ongoing Test series against Australia. And since Rohit won't be a part of the playing XI, Jasprit Bumrah will be leading the team from the front in SCG.

Rohit had been going through a rough patch with the bat. During this series, he has scored just 31 runs after playing in five innings at an average of 6.20

His form with the bat began dwindling at the beginning of last year. After playing in 14 matches in 2024, he had scored just 619 runs, at a poor average of 24.76, which includes two centuries and as many half-centuries.

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The team management took this decision just a day before the last Test match, where the Men in Blue were already trailing by 2-1.

He missed the series opener as he was on a paternity leave owing to the birth of his son and joined the national side for the second Test match and since then things are not going in his favour. 

He changed his batting position and played as a middle-order batter during the second and the third Test matches and then played as an opener again in the Boxing Day Test. This decision led to the team management dropping Shubman Gill from the playing XI and things didn't go as planned as Rohit's woeful form with the bat continued. 

There are speculations that the Indian skipper would be announcing his retirement from the longest format after the fifth Test match at the SCG. According to the Times of India, due to his inconsistency with the bat, he didn't find a place in the playing XI and the management took a bold decision to drop him from the last game. 

The Indian captain has been going through a rough patch since a long time now. During this series, he had scored just 31 runs after playing in five innings and at a below-par average of 6.20. 

After scoring a hundred against the Ben Stokes-led side in March last year, he has struggled to score runs. Besides that hundred in Dharamshala, he has scored 154 runs after playing in 15 matches at an average of 10.26 and that also includes his gritty knock of 52 runs against New Zealand at the M Chinnaswamy stadium. 

Rohit also didn't attend the pre-match press conference ahead of the fifth Test match and head coach Gautam Gambhir replied to the questions about the team's playing XI. 

Rohit would be all but playing his last Test match and was seen looking at the training session from afar as star pacer Jasprit Bumrah was seen having conversation with head coach Gautam Gambhir and the whole team. 

Taking into consideration the current situation, the Indian team is undergoing a quick transition and although Rohit still hasn't announced it officially, he had played his last Test match for the country at MCG. 

Bumrah to lead 

Bumrah was actively involved during the training session on Thursday and was seen shaking hands with Shubman Gill. Under his leadership, the visitors won the first match by a huge margin of 295 runs and then things became worse in the rest of the series. 

They will aim to win the fifth and the last Test match and will try to retain the elusive trophy. 

KL Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal would continue opening the innings, whereas Shubman Gill would come into bat at No.3 position. Akash Deep has been ruled out owing to an injury and would be replaced by a new fast bowler. Mohammed Siraj also didn't attend the training session and there are high chances that Harshit Rana would be replacing him in the playing XI.