‘Rohit Sharma has earned right to walk away from Test cricket ‘on his own terms’: Michael Clarke

While Rohit has averaged a paltry 6.50 in the series with his longest of 40 innings being in the second-innings in the Boxing Day Test, Kohli has failed to put up any significant knock besides his Perth century.

“You see that with a number of players — to some people the captaincy helps for others it doesn’t. I certainly think he’ll play at Sydney. I don’t think they’ll drop him. I think Rohit has earned the right and he’s captain. When you are captain you get a little more leeway as well,” Clarke told ESPN ahead of the fifth Test in Sydney.

“But those numbers don’t read great. But they’ll allow Rohit to walk away on his own terms. No idea if Sydney will be his last Test. I’m not sure what he is thinking, or what India’s got coming up Test cricket wise.

“I’m not sure how Rohit feels captaincy wise..he’s just had his second child so who knows what’s going to happen there but I’ll imagine he will certainly play in Sydney,” he added.

Another former Australia captain Aaron Finch also weighed in on the debate.

“The alarming thing for me is how well they played under Bumrah’s captaincy in Perth (in first Test) and they have come back here and looks like an unsettled line up since Rohit’s come back in. But he’s still a great player, he’s a beautiful player to watch and I hope he gets some runs,” said Finch.

– With PTI inputs