Is this the end for Rohit Sharma?

Australia has a long history of finishing the careers of established touring captains.

There is little doubt star-studded XIs of the past have actually taken pride in ruining the professional lives of touring skippers.

Rohit Sharma looks every bit the latest leader to come here, falter, and never play again.

It's a shame, but it's the brutal reality of where he's at and how he fits (or doesn't fit) into this Indian team.

He has 25 runs from five knocks since he landed midway through the Perth Test.

His feet are heavy, his mind appears skewed, and his captaincy is far less emphatic than Jasprit Bumrah’s was.

He looks like a shell of the player he once was. And even when he was at his peak, he never excelled in Australia anyway. He's unlikely to turn that around now. Not at 37.

Over a longer period of time, Sharma’s record is equally as grim at the elite level. He has 152 runs from his last 14 Test digs at 10.8.

A number nine wouldn't be satisfied with these numbers.

It’s this long string of failures which should have Sharma considering Mike Denness’ radical decision to drop himself ahead of the fourth Test of the 1974/75 Ashes.

At the time he had 65 runs across six innings.

It’s a valid question to ask whether Sharma’s arrival and subsequent inclusion in the Test team has been more destabilising than reaffirming.

He slotted into the middle order for the first time since 2018, failed three times, then decided to open in Melbourne at the expense of KL Rahul.

Rahul had not batted first drop for six years, and Shubman Gill - who made 38, 28 and 1 across his three knocks - was omitted.

In essence, Sharma couldn’t find form where the team needed him most, so he upended the rest of the batting order to suit his requirements.

Predictably, he failed. A short ball from Pat Cummins made him look awkward and frankly finished.

A younger, sharper Sharma used to hook and pull with aplomb. And do it regularly. It was his trademark.

He wouldn’t be the first rival captain to come to Australia and falter later in an otherwise excellent career.

Misbah-ul-Haq averaged 12 in 2016/17 and never played again for Pakistan.

Jimmy Adams averaged 18 across five agonising matches at the beginning of the 21st century, never to be seen for the West Indies again.

And captaincy became too much for both Andrew Flintoff in 2006/07 and Joe Root in 2017/18 on ill-fated Ashes tours.

If India is serious about retaining the Border-Gavaskar, Sharma’s position surely must be up for debate between now and Sydney.

They have far too much depth to carry a captain plodding along at the rate he is.