India’s designated skipper Rohit Sharma, who is not featuring in the team’s ongoing Test match against Australia in Sydney, gave an unexpected interview to the broadcaster Star Sports on Saturday (January 4).

Speaking during the Lunch break on Day 2 from the iconic SCG, Rohit addressed a host of issues that had been holding the Indian team back leading up to the final Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

To begin with, the 37-year-old dismissed the speculation about him getting dropped from the Sydney Test.

“Not any of these three (rested, opted out, and dropped). I stood down. That is what I would say. Look, if I would say something, but it can be interpreted in 50 different ways. Basically, the chat that I had with the coach and the selector was very simple: I am not scoring runs, I am not in form, it’s an important match, anyways the batting unit is struggling a bit. So, you can’t carry a lot of out-of-form players in the team. It was as simple as this and it was going in my mind. I was keen on telling this to the coach and the selector, I told them, they backed my decision. They told me ‘you are playing for these many years, you would know better about what you can do and what you can’t’. For me, making the decision was difficult. But keeping everything in front, it was a sensible decision,” Rohit said.

“I won’t think too far ahead. At this time, what the team needed, that was what I was thinking. Apart from this, I didn’t think about anything else.”

Rohit was all over the place in the ongoing tour Down Under, managing just 31 runs in five innings at an abysmal average of 6.20 -- the lowest by a touring captain on Australian soil. He took the tough call to step aside after landing in Sydney.

“I took this decision after coming here because after the Melbourne Test, we had only two days (turnaround). In that, one was New Year’s Day. On New Year’s Day, I thought it would be right to inform about such a decision to the coach and the selectors. But, it was playing in my mind. I was trying my best and it was not happening. It’s important to accept that it was not happening for me. And it was important for me to step aside.”

“When I arrived in Perth. Why did we win that game? We got out bowled out for 150 and then we bowled them out for 100. We had a 50-run lead. And then, the game could have gone anywhere. In the second innings, there was a partnership of 200. That was the game-changer. That is where won the game. We knew that the pitches here offers help to the bowlers. Bowlers will do their job, there was no doubt. But, for the batters, it was a challenge. KL Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal handled those challenges really well. They got us into a position from where we couldn’t lose the Test. Everything was on my mind. I thought it was not needed to disturb that opening pair.”

“I want to say one more thing. Whenever I captain, I don’t think about what’s going to happen five months later, six months later. I don’t believe in that. Because it’s important to focus on what’s needed now. Our focus was on these five matches. We wanted to win the series, and retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. All the decisions that were taken were for the team.”

Speculations are rife that Rohit Sharma may have played his last Test match in Melbourne. However, he clarified that he hasn’t stepped away from the longest format completely.

“Look, like I said, this decision is not a retirement decision. Nor I am going to step away from the game. I am out of this game because I am not getting runs. There’s no guarantee that I won’t be scoring runs five months later. We have seen a lot in cricket, every minute, every second, every moment, life changes.”

“I am confident things will change. At the same time, I have to be realistic as well. At the same time, some person is sitting with a mic, laptop or a pen and writing stuff, our lives do not change because of what that person is writing or saying.”

“We have seen the game for so many years. These people can’t decide when we have to go, when we can’t play, and when we can’t captain the side. I am a sensible person, a mature person, father of two children. I have enough sense to understand what I want in life.”

Rohit also spoke in detail about the alleged dressing room leaks from the Indian camp and how it affected the players.

“It doesn’t affect us because the players here are made of steel. We have tried our best to make players like this. See, we can’t control certain things, and we don’t want to fret about those things. We don’t want to waste time on it.”

“Let it happen (the leaks). What can we do about it? Just focus on winning the match and getting better in our game, that’s what we want to do.”