Bumrah captains as India drop Rohit for fifth Test

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Rohit Sharma might have played his final Test after sensationally being axed for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series climax, as his captaincy replacement Jasprit Bumrah elected to bat first after winning the toss in Sydney.

As Mark Waugh presented Australia's latest debutant Beau Webster with his Baggy Green on Friday morning, India confirmed the poorly kept secret of Rohit's dumping after a miserable run of form with the bat.

Australia XI: Sam Konstas, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Beau Webster, Alex Carey (wk), Pat Cummins (c), Mitch Starc, Nathan Lyon, Scott Boland

India XI: KL Rahul, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Jasprit Bumrah (c), Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna

The 37-year-old had not passed 10 in five innings since arriving late to India's tour of Australia. The visitors have recalled Shubman Gill in his place. KL Rahul will return to the opening position with Gill back at No.3.

With Akash Deep out with a back complaint, Prasidh Krishna will play his first Test of the tour, having played in the PM's XI match.

The 188cm-tall right-arm quick has two Test caps to his name, both coming in South Africa a year ago, and impressed with 10 wickets for India A in their two matches against Australia A in October-November.

Australia had already confirmed Webster's inclusion at the expense of Mitch Marsh on Thursday after the Western Australian averaged just 10 in seven innings through the first four Tests of this series.

Bumrah, who said Rohit had "opted to rest" from this match, elected to bat despite a green-tinged SCG pitch and overcast day-one morning conditions.

"There seems to be some grass but it doesn't look to have any demons and it doesn't look to be really spicy," the new India skipper said at the toss. "There's always a challenge with the new ball but if you get through, it's always a good batting deck."

Pat Cummins conceded: "We were going to bat as well. But overcast conditions so hopefully we can get the ball to swing around early."

Tongues had been set wagging on match eve when coach Gautam Gambhir fronted the pre-Test press conference instead of Rohit, who played a minimal role in their only training session since their final-day defeat in Melbourne.

The visitors will hope Bumrah's return to the leadership can bring out the best in a Test team Gambhir described as being "in transition". The fast bowler skippered India to a big win in the series opener in Perth when Rohit was absent due to the birth of his second child.

Steve Smith's wait to become the fourth Australian to 10,000 Test runs will go on a little longer, with the star batter only 38 away from the milestone.

Not that he wants to think too much about getting there.

"(It's) more that I don't want to have 38 in my head when I go out to bat and start thinking about that," Smith, who will join Allan Border, Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting as Australians in the 10k-run club, told cricket.com.au's Unplayable Podcast.

"I just want to focus on the present and put that out of my mind. Obviously it's a cool milestone to get to if I get there. But I want to try to keep it out of my mind as much as possible.

"Punter (Ponting), in an interview with him the other day, just spoke about it and he said "it's perfectly set up - Sydney, at home, get 38 (more runs) … see how I go."

NRMA Insurance Men's Test Series v India

First Test: India won by 295 runs

Second Test: Australia won by 10 wickets

Third Test: Match drawn

Fourth Test: Australia won by 184 runs

Fifth Test: January 3-7: SCG, Sydney, 10.30am AEDT

Australia squad: Pat Cummins (c), Sean Abbott, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Travis Head (vc), Usman Khawaja, Sam Konstas, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Jhye Richardson, Steve Smith (vc), Mitchell Starc, Beau Webster

India squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Jasprit Bumrah (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Devdutt Padikkal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar. Reserves: Mukesh Kumar, Navdeep Saini, Khaleel Ahmed, Yash Dayal