Despite the times we live in, where the shorter format of the game is increasingly becoming the fan’s barometer for gauging a cricketer’s ability, Tests still remain the most desired platform for players to prove their mettle. No matter how much a batsman scores and how quickly he rattles up big scores, unless he proves himself at the Test level, he is not considered a success.
These thoughts come to mind while trying to evaluate Rohit Sharma’s standing in Indian cricket today, especially after his stupendous feat of becoming the only cricketer to have three double hundreds to his name in one-day internationals.
Rohit, who is also called the “hit-man” presumably due to his ability to hit the ball with force and precision, is without doubt among the most-feared batsmen in the shorter format.
Ever since he started opening the India innings, his career graph has zoomed and his penchant for big scores has put him in a league that some of the greats of the game too may find difficult to get into.
However, for a man of his talent and voracious appetite for runs, it is a bit baffling that he has struggled to establish himself in Test cricket. In the present team, he was the first off the block. Those who watched him make his mark in first-class cricket would often vouch for his talent and end up saying that Rohit will be the next big thing in Indian cricket.
That was a time when Virat Kohli was only known for his U-19 World Cup achievements and Cheteshwar Pujara was yet to be noticed. It was being taken for granted that batsmen of Rohit’s natural flair and talent would never find it difficult to cope with international cricket. A few years back, not many were willing to put Kohli ahead of Rohit, the unanimous opinion being that Rohit is in a class of his own and no youngster in India can match him.
Kohli proved everyone wrong. The India captain, after stumbling and struggling in his initial days, worked his way up the ladder, showing that there is nothing one can’t achieve if talent is backed by hard work and a disciplined life. While Rohit got lost somewhere in the maze of the glamour world, perhaps not realising that talent alone is not enough to take one to the top, Kohli took the lead and is now regarded among the best.
He lost his place in the Test team and what worked for him was the faith the think-tank had in his undoubted abilities. A regal, flowing stroke-maker when at his best, Rohit was even pushed back into the team, replacing Pujara, a controversial move, that did not go down well with the followers of the game.
After once again losing his place in the Test team, he has made a successful comeback against the Sri Lankans, but doubts still persist. Is he, like many, a flat-track bully, who can score runs only in conditions favouring the batsmen? Is that the reason for his great success in the shorter format as conditions generally are tailormade for batsmen in the one-dayers and T-20’s?
It is for Rohit to dispel these doubts and he can’t get a better opportunity to prove his critics wrong than scoring runs in South Africa to end this debate once and for all. Majestic strikers of the ball like Rohit are a rarity and it will be unfortunate if his greatness gets limited to the confines of one-day cricket.
Delayed debut
Rohit made his ODI and T20I debut in 2007, but came into the scheme of things in Tests only in 2010. However, that was not to be as he picked an injury on the morning of the match against South Africa in Nagpur. Bengal wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha made his debut instead.
The door opens
After another long wait of nearly four years, six years after he had made his ODI debut, Rohit made donned whites for the first time in Sachin Tendulkar’s farewell series, against West Indies on
November 6, 2013.
On the money
Playing as a middle-order batsman, he arrived in style, registering consecutive centuries in his first two innings (177, 111 n.o), and helped India outwit the visitors with innings margins in the two-match Test series.
Rohit was declared Man of the Match in his debut Test, and went on to receive the Man of the Series award.
Getting back to form
The destructive ODI opener has played only 21 Tests since then. But, his recent form suggests that he is here to stay. He scored his third Test century (102*) recently against a hapless Sri Lanka side at the same ground — Nagpur — he was denied a debut about eight years ago. The Mumbai Indians skipper followed it up with two half centuries (65, 50 n.o)in the last Test. He has also hit nine half-centuries.
1,401
With 1,401 runs in 39 innings with an average in early 40s, India’s middle-order might just have found their new anchorman.