RAJKOT: Rohit Sharma is the third-highest run-getter among Test openers since he started on the job against South Africa five years ago. He has 2242 runs in 49 innings just below Dimuth Karunaratne (2358 in 48 innings) and David Warner (2328 in 58). His average, 48.73, is third among openers with more than 2000 runs in the period.
Rohit has been among the consistent run-getters since becoming an opener. At home, he averages a tinge above 52 and has five centuries, the last one being against Australia in Nagpur. Which is why, there have been questions about his on-field tactics against England in the first two Tests and red-ball captaincy in general, but not about the fact that Rohit has not crossed the 40-run mark in eight innings (13, 14, 39, 24, 16*, 39, 0, 5). Or about how he hasn’t scored a fifty in the last five Tests he played.
Truth be told, it is not that Rohit has been entirely out of form, or has a technical flaw. He had one of the best white-ball year ever as a captain and opener in 2023, led India to the final of the men’s ODI World Cup as well as the World Test Championship. It might seem like he is just going through a lean patch as any high-performance athlete would.
However, context matters. Eight innings without getting to 40s is one thing, but it is not that he didn’t get starts. Thrice he got the starts and then got out, and more than the dismissals, it is the way he has gotten out. While he has gotten a couple of peaches from Kagiso Rabada and James Anderson, there have been quite a few soft dismissals as well. In the first innings of Centurion, he pulled Rabada straight into the hands of long leg fielder. In Hyderabad, with a massive lead in the bank, he tried to go after Jack Leach only to be caught by Ben Stokes. In Visakhapatnam, he flicked Shoaib Bashir straight into the hands of Ollie Pope.
Now, Rohit has always been the kind of batter who takes on the ball when in his areas. When it comes to Test cricket, it’s something that has made for a debatable topic even when he was a middle-order batter. Like how he tried to go after Nathan Lyon and got out when he was set and going well, multiple pull shot dismissals and so on. There’s always been an argument about risk versus reward. The problem now is that there is no Virat Kohli or Chesteshwar Pujara to carry on. There is no Rishabh Pant to continue the madness from where Rohit had left.
In this Indian team, Rohit is indispensable. In form or not, he is the senior-most reliable batter in the side. While the youngsters like Yashasvi Jaiswal have piled on runs, and Shubman Gill to get a longer rope for now, Rohit is the name and player everyone looks up to. He is the batter opponents are wary of. For they know what he can do if he bats through a couple of sessions. England players would not have forgotten the century in Chennai 2021. And that is why, for a team that is in transition, with Kohli not available against a world-class opposition, Rohit, the batter, is as important as Rohit, the captain. If not, more. Which begs the question — is it time to talk about Rohit’s batting?
In Rajkot, if India go on to hand debut to two players, their middle-order will have an experience of one Test. The other opener is still making a name for himself and No. 3 just scored his first hundred in that position. If there ever was an occasion for Rohit to step up and score big runs, this was it. India need their captain, the most experienced batter and one of the top openers in the world to just bat through a couple of sessions. That is all Rohit needs to take the game away from England. Can he? We’ll know in the coming days. If he doesn’t, may be then, it is about time to talk about Rohit, the batter.
