India’s captain Rohit Sharma had a horrid time in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25. Rohit was highly disappointing with the bat and even looked clueless as a captain. His poor numbers even forced him to drop himself for the final Test in Sydney.
Former Australia cricketer Kerry O’Keeffe spoke about the strategy adopted by Australia to attack India’s captain and bring the team down straight away. O’Keeffe claimed Australia were successful as they forced Rohit Sharma to sit out of the last match.
Australia’s tactics not only affected India’s combination but also brought Rohit Sharma’s career to the brink. There have been calls for his retirement, however, Rohit still feels that he has something left in him.
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Kerry O’Keeffe reveals Australia’s strategy
While speaking to Fox Cricket, Kerry O’Keeffe claimed that the tactics to attack the opposition captain have worked for Australia once again. According to him, Australia have opted for the same tactics again and again whenever they have won.
“So it’s come to pass. The Australian tactic for years has been to look to bring down the opposition captain, and it’s been, if you look at the series they’ve won, it’s worked the whole time,” O’Keeffe said.
The Australian bowlers were all over Rohit Sharma in the series. The Indian skipper scored 31 runs in three Tests that he played at an average of just 6.20. It is the worst-ever average by a visiting captain in Australia and it sums up his miserable Test series.
How did Australia attack opposition captains?
Kerry O’Keeffe further cited the examples of how Australia have previously attacked the opposition captains in order to bring the whole team down. He claimed that Australia were not successful against Ajinkya Rahane in the BGT 2020-21 and as a result, they lost the series.
His examples also include Shan Masood of Pakistan, Kraigg Brathwaite of the West Indies, and Tim Southee of New Zealand. All these players led their respective teams against Australia recently but didn’t perform well individually.
“They couldn’t get Rahane Ajinkya the last time and he won the series. But if you look at the captains they’ve brought down in recent times, Sharma. Tick. Shan Masood with Pakistan. It was three-nil. Kraigg Brathwaite, it was one-all, but they were on top of Kraigge. They went to New Zealand and brought down Tim Southee, winning two-nil,” O’Keeffe added.
Kerry O’Keeffe breaks down Australia’s strategy against Rohit Sharma
Kerry O’Keeffe further mentioned that Australia tried to attack Jasprit Bumrah but the fast bowler was too good for them. However, their tactic worked against Rohit Sharma as he was already out of form.
“They couldn’t bring down (Jasprit) Bumrah. He was too good. But then the baton was passed to Rohit Sharma and they brought him down straight away, to the extent that he withdrew from the final Test. So that’s a tactic they seem to want to do if they can, if they can break the skipper and make him anonymous, it empowers them,” O’Keefe observed.
Rohit Sharma played the second, third, and fourth Tests of the series. He missed the first Test due to the birth of his second child and dropped out of the fifth Test due to his bad form with the bat.
In Rohit’s absence, vice-captain Jasprit Bumrah led India in the first and fifth Tests. Bumrah led India to a historic win in Perth and almost led the team to a win in Sydney before a back injury forced him out of the match.