After a week of tectonic changes in Indian cricket which saw skipper Rohit Sharma and former captain Virat Kohli announce their retirement from Test cricket ahead of the all-important Test series against England, Ravi Shastri recalled the events of the 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) and claimed he would have handled things differently had he been in charge of the India team.

Shastri revealed he had a chat with Rohit recently and told him that he was not pleased with his decision to sit out at the Sydney Test. The former head coach of the Indian revealed that if he had he been in charge of the team, he would have played the final Test of the BGT despite his poor form.

For those unversed, Rohit took the unprecedented move of sitting out the match despite being the captain following a nightmare series that saw him score 31 runs in six innings.

Shasti claimed that with India only 2-1 down in the series, the series was not over and Rohit could have made the difference on a tough pitch in Sydney.

“I saw Rohit a lot at the toss. At the toss, you don't get enough time to speak. Though I did put my hand on his shoulder in one of the games.I think it was in Mumbai and told him, if I was coach you would have never not played that last Test match. You would have played that last Test match because the series wasn't over.

“And I'm not someone who threw in the towel with the scoreline 2-1. If your mindset is you feel you are… that's not the stage, you leave a team," said Shastri to ICC Review in a chat with Sanjana Ganeshan.

“That was a 30-40 run game. And that's exactly what I told him. The pitch was so spicy in Sydney. Whatever kind of form he was in, he's a match-winner. If he had gone, sensed the situation, sensed the condition and smashed it for even 35-40 at the top, you never know. That series would have been level. But that's each one to his own.

“Other people have different styles. This would have been my style and I let him know it. It's sitting in my heart for a long time. I had to get it out. And I told him that," Shastri added.

After months of speculation, Rohit announced his retirement from the longest format through an Instagram story on May 8. India will have a new captain for the 2025-27 World Test Championship cycle. While the BCCI are yet to make an announcement, Shubman Gill is reportedly leading the race despite Jasprit Bumrah captaining the team in Rohit's absence in Australia.

Shastri was the head coach of the team during their victories in the 2018-19 and 2020-21 BGT, which are also the only two instances of India winning a Test series on Australian soil in history.

Gambhir's tenure as head coach has started on a historic low for India as they not only lost the BGT after a decade, post a 3-1 series defeat, but also suffered a first-ever whitewash in a home Test series of three or more matches when they lost 3-0 to New Zealand.

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