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Amid talks that Rohit Sharma was twice told by the selectors about their plans to move on from him in ODI cricket to accommodate the deserving Yashasvi Jaiswal, another twist has emerged.
According to sources, the selectors had secured an assurance from Rohit that he would consider hanging up his boots after assessing how the first two matches of the England ODI series went.
But everything changed after Rohit struck that big hundred at Lord’s. Sources claim that Rohit subsequently refused to step aside and is now at loggerheads with Ajit Agarkar over the issue, even pushing for the chief selector’s ouster.
“Rohit had given the selectors an assurance that he would consider his future after the first two games. But after the Lord’s hundred, he changed his mind,” a source told CricBlogger.
None of the board officials were available for comment.
This isn’t the first time Rohit has acted like a turncoat. Even when he was dropped as Test captain, he had assured the selectors in Australia that he wouldn’t play Test cricket again. But he changed his stance the moment the final Test in Sydney began. That incident changed the way both head coach Gautam Gambhir and Rohit viewed each other.
Thereafter, Rohit did make a case for himself for the England series after speaking to board officials, but had to give up both his place in the Test team and the captaincy after the selectors stood their ground last year.
As reported by CricBlogger earlier, Rohit has also raised concerns about Gambhir’s dominating style, arguing that the fate of Indian cricket cannot rest on one individual. It is understood that the idea of bringing in VVS Laxman as a team director has gained momentum.
Whether this three-tier hierarchy would work remains to be seen, but it could certainly help restore some peace in Indian cricket amid the current tensions. Eventually, the social media narrative also exerted considerable pressure on the BCCI, prompting the board to issue a statement clarifying that Rohit was not retiring from ODI cricket after the Lord’s match and remained in the selectors’ plans.
