Captain Rohit to sit out for Border-Gavaskar opener after 'low point' of his career

After the humiliating 0-3 home series loss to New Zealand, India captain Rohit Sharma will likely miss the first Border-Gavaskar Trophy match against Australia starting November 22.

"Not sure whether I will be going, fingers crossed," Rohit said on his participation in the Perth Test due to personal reasons. In his absence, vice-captain Jasprit Bumrah will lead India, and Abhimanyu Easwaran is expected to cover for the skipper.

Rohit was crestfallen after India suffered a 25-run defeat in the third Test at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, which had only just a few months ago feted the T20 world champions. "Something like this will be a very low point of my career and I take full responsibility for it," he said at the post-match press conference. New Zealand set a target of 147 on the third day, but India were all out for 121. "Losing a series, a Test match, is never easy... something that is not easily digestible. We didn't play our best cricket. New Zealand played better throughout the series. There were a lot of mistakes we did," Rohit said.

The captain was clear about what went wrong. "The first two Tests we did not put enough runs in the first innings. This game we got the 30 runs (28) lead and the target was chaseable. We failed as a unit. When you are chasing a target like that, you want runs on the board. That was in my mind and it did not come of. When it does not come of it does not look great," he said.

Rohit did not shy away from his individual failures, too. He scored merely 91 runs across six innings at an average of 15. "I was not at my best as captain in leading the team as well as with the bat also. Collectively as a unit we failed to perform," the India skipper said.