For sheer grace, elegance, timing and range of strokes, Rohit Sharma has no match in this Indian team. No, not even Virat Kohli can surpass this explosive stroke-maker, who is an aesthetic delight once he unleashes his range of shots.
Leading the Indian side in the Asia Cup in Dubai, Rohit has been an enigmatic figure of Indian cricket. A poor average of under 40 in the 25 Tests he has intermittently played since making debut in 2013, reflects a mismatch between potential and achievement. It is this gap between talent and results that has left his legion of fans dismayed.
The monarch of limited overs cricket, with three double hundreds to his name, becomes a struggling novice on surfaces where the ball starts playing tricks, and tests the technique of batsmen. His failures are explained, somewhat simplistically one may say, to his being a flat-track bully. On wickets where the ball neither deviates nor spins, Rohit can slaughter the bowler at will. This is a trait he shares with many players, past and present. What differentiates him from a lot of them is the manner in which he executes his strokes. Unhurried and unstoppable, he wades into shots with disdainful, majestic ease that must be an unnerving experience for the bowlers. It is this strength that has led the selectors to keep giving him chances in Tests, despite failures.
The Pujara-Rohit debate has its genesis in the faith Kohli-Shastri and the selectors have in him. Who would not, after having watched him score runs in a consummate manner in domestic cricket, be it in the shorter or longer format. That they were being unfair to the team’s interest and Pujara, who with his own set of skills and proven ability to negotiate difficult surfaces and conditions was being treated shabbily, is not the subject of this column.
What should be troubling Rohit and his fans is his inability to counter testing conditions, despite the huge appetite for runs he possesses. At 31, age is not on his side. If he has to transform himself from a one-day wonder to a more rounded batsman that would stamp true greatness on him, he needs to look within and outside to correct his flaws.
Does he lack temperament and patience, a virtue in testing conditions that leads him to indiscretion, a major reason for his failure? Is his footwork faulty? Does he possess too many strokes for his own good? Or is this a more generic flaw that has been the bane of most Indian batsmen who are used to playing on flat batting conditions?
Rohit is lucky that the team management has had tremendous faith in him and kept giving him chances despite repeated failures. His one-day success has not only cemented his place in the side, but even helped him to lead in Kohli’s absence. There was a time when he was rated far ahead of Kohli. Had he fulfilled that promise, who knows, he and not Kohli would have been leading this side.
Rohit needs to introspect and he has his captain as an inspirational example to follow. Kohli has worked unimaginably hard on his fitness and weaknesses to overcome his flaws and become a phenomenal run getter in all formats of the game. It will be a tragedy if a man of such flowing batting skills ends up as a failure in Test cricket.