Gavaskar Criticizes Rohit Sharma's Decision to Exclude Shubman Gill for MCG Test

On December 30, which was a Monday, India lost to Australia, making the score 1-2 in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy for 2024-25. The Indian captain, Rohit Sharma, was very upset about the loss. Sharma said it played with their minds. Then, he started talking about why Shubman Gill, a player who's been playing very well, didn't play. Rohit said he spoke to Gill first because you can't just make someone sit out without telling them beforehand. Sharma told Gill he wasn't really removed from the team, they just needed to boost their bowling lineup a bit.

During the post-match press conference Rohit Sharma said, “I talked to him. When a man is left out there is always a conversation. The message was quite simple he was not removed. We only required another option in the bowling department.” However, Sunil Gavaskar, the ex-India cricketer didn’t concur with Rohit. Gavaskar responded by asking if there is any difference between ‘dropping’ and ‘leaving out’, which creates a question on Rohit’s statement.

The legendary cricketer, Gavaskar, said, Whether you say 'omitted' or 'dropped,' it's the same. Even though it might sound different, the player ends up not playing. Then, he turned his attention to Rohit's decision, mainly wondering why release Shubman Gill especially when India's having trouble with batting. He said, Gill was released to let Rohit open and put KL Rahul at No. 3 which didn't make sense because your batting lineup was already struggling.

Gill got about 30 runs in each game during the pink-ball test in Adelaide, as Gavaskar remembered. He didn't get to play the first test and then made a small mistake that got him out fast in Brisbane. Despite that, was it really okay to kick him off the team? That ended up happening, and we all saw what resulted from it.

ALSO READ:Who is Sharfuddoula Saikat, the Bangladeshi 3rd Umpire Behind Yashasvi Jaiswal's Controversial Dismissal?

To sum it all up, dropping Gill didn't make sense, especially when India's hitting was having a tough time. Gavaskar pointed out how odd that decision was by questioning the reasoning behind it, seeing as Gill's last few games didn't really show he should've been left out.