Sanjay Manjrekar suggests that India captain Rohit Sharma's Day 2 interview during the fifth Test at Sydney might have been to clear credit misconceptions regarding his exclusion. Rohit aimed to clarify his decision amidst claims highlighting head coach Gautam Gambhir's input,

During the interview, Rohit Sharma suggested that he "isn't retiring" and said that he decided to "opt out" of the match owing to poor form.

In nine innings of the five Test matches, Virat Kohli managed only 190 runs. The only big run that came from his bat was in the second innings of the first Test at Perth, where he remained unbeaten on 100. In the next seven innings, his highest score was 36.