‘Rohit Sharma could cause more disruption in Indian camp’: Ricky Ponting’s audacious remark has shades of Sunil Gavaskar

Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting, on Thursday, sent out a warning to the Indian Team ahead of their regular skipper Rohit Sharma‘s potential return to the squad before the second Test against Australia. Ponting’s audacious statement, on the eve of the start of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series in Perth, had shades of Sunil Gavaskar’s viral remark.

Rohit will miss the opening Test match against Australia on Friday, with Jasprit Bumrah slated to lead the side in his stead. The 37-year-old stayed back in India as he and his wife Ritika Sajdeh had their second child last Friday. However, he will join the Indian camp before the second Test in Adelaide, and will reportedly play the pink-ball warm-up game in Canberra, ahead of the Test match.

Speaking on The ICC Review, Ponting believed Rohit’s return could cause a “disruption” in the Indian camp, which is why he stuck to his prediction of a 3-1 win for Australia in the five-match series.

“I just think there’s potential for more disruption through their campaign with Sharma coming back and whatever else. So I’ll stick with it (3-1 verdict in favour of Australia),” Ponting said.

Ponting felt despite Rohit’s absence, India has managed to plug the holes in their squad and is all set to bounce back from a home Test series whitewash against the Zealand earlier this month and take on Australia.

“India will be pretty certain of what team they’re going to play (in Perth). They’ve known for a while that Rohit probably wasn’t going to be here. They’ve probably known for a while that Bumrah was going to be captain. So they’ve probably known what holes they’ve needed to fill. So they’ll be reasonably settled,” he said.

What had Sunil Gavaskar said?

Speaking to Sports Tak earlier this month, Gavaskar stressed the need for the presence of the regular captain in the first match of the series, especially when a team suffered a humiliating defeat at home in the contest preceding that. Hence, he urged BCCI’s chief selector Ajit Agarkar to name Bumrah as the captain for the entire Border-Gavaskar series, saying that Rohit can join the contest whenever he makes himself available, but solely as a player. He explained that given the circumstance under which India are heading into the contest, there should be a clarity in the leadership role among the players.

“Captain should play the opening Test. It would have been different had he been injured. But if a captain is not available right in the first Test match of the series, then it would put a lot of pressure on the deputy leader and that is not easy. We see reports saying Rohit won’t play the opening Test, and we don’t know yet about his availability for the second Test, if that is true, then Agarkar should right now tell him, ‘Whatever you wish to do, you can, whether you want to take rest, you can, that is a personal reason, but for this tour, you can only participate as a player. You can join the Indian squad whenever you want, but for this tour, we are naming the vice-captain as the leader.’ There should be clarity because we lost 0-3 against New Zealand, so the captain has to be there. Indian cricket is the most important thing. Had India won the New Zealand series 3-0, it would have been a different case.” he had said.