Former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan has said that Rohit Sharma did not deserve to be in the Playing Xl in the later stages of India’s tour to Australia last year.

In a recent interview he said that if Rohit was not the captain, he would not make it to the Indian squad due to his poor performance.

Rohit Shara was going through a rough side in Australia and dropped himself out of the final test in Sydney and announced his test retirement ahead of the England series.

“Rohit Sharma is an amazing player in white-ball cricket, but his average in Test cricket that year was 6, so we said that if he was not the captain, he would not have had a place in the team, and this is true,” he said.

However, Irfan Pathan was criticised for being lenient on Rohit in a mid-match interview during the Sydney Test.

The former all-rounder said he had to be polite with the Indian captain because he was guest in the interview.

“People say that we supported Rohit Sharma more than necessary. Of course, when someone comes to interview on your broadcasting channel, you will not misbehave with them, right? You have invited him, so you will behave politely.

“When Rohit came to interview, we were, of course, polite, and we had to show that, because he was our guest. So that was connected and said we were supporting him, but it was we who said…we had said that he should keep fighting, but that said, he should not have had a place in the playing XI. If he was not the captain of the team, he would have been dropped,” he said.

Rohit Sharma played only three matches in the Border Gavaskar Trophy where he averaged 6.20, the lowest by a visiting captain in Australia.

His form saw a dip even before the Australia tour as he could not score even one half century in the preceding home series against New Zealand where India were whitewashed 0-3.