Sydney axing signals end of road for India captain Rohit

SYDNEY : India's tottering Border-Gavaskar Trophy defence may soon claim a second victim with skipper Rohit Sharma looking at the end of his test career after being dropped for the fifth and final test against Australia on Friday.

Unlike spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, who quit international cricket altogether after playing one of the first three tests in Australia, Rohit is likely to stay on as India's ODI captain with a home series against England and the Champions Trophy looming.

Rohit quit T20 Internationals immediately after guiding India to their second 20-overs World Cup title last year but his test career is likely to end not with a bang but with a whimper.

Trailing 2-1 heading into the series finale in Sydney, India took the "emotional" decision of dropping their struggling captain, who cannot find his mojo either in his usual opener's role or in the middle order.

Rohit has a single fifty in his last 15 test innings that include 10 single-digit scores and had to vacate his place so India could accommodate Shubman Gill back in the top order.

With their hopes of making the World Test Championship final effectively over, India's next test assignment will be a five-match series England in June-July.

Rohit will be 38 by then and few expect the Mumbai player to don the test whites again.

"I think it probably means that (if) India don't qualify for the WTC final, the Melbourne Test will be Rohit Sharma's last game," former India captain Sunil Gavaskar said during the lunch break on day one.

"We have probably seen Rohit Sharma for the last time in test cricket."

TOUGH DECISION

Former India coach Ravi Shastri had a similar feeling.

"If there was a home season coming up he might have thought of carrying on, but I think he might just