BRISBANE: And just like that Rohit Sharma was taking the long walk back at the Gabba. For the third time in this series, the Indian captain had failed with the bat, and this one — on yet another overcast morning in Brisbane — felt the longest. It felt like he didn’t want to leave, nor did he have a clue as to why it was happening again and again. There was a sense of frustration and helplessness as Sharma dropped off his gloves at the boundary before going into the dugout and dressing room.
Once again, Sharma had gotten out trying to defend a ball just outside off-stump. It was his chance to own up and rescue the team, especially after the way things went in the first innings with the ball. But his poor run since the home season began does not seem to be stopping as India, trailing by 371 runs when Sharma fell, was in deep trouble.
Sharma, meanwhile, has bigger concerns. There have been multiple theories about the causation and correlation between his dip in red-ball form and Test captaincy. However, while trying to understand them one term comes to mind — Post hoc ergo propter hoc. The phrase translated from Latin means ‘after this, therefore because of this,’ the fallacy in assuming that one event causes another because it happened before the other.
Sharma’s poor form might not be the root cause behind his ‘passive’ captaincy and vice versa might not true either. The Indian captain, in red-ball cricket, has always been the way he is but when they play at home their resources make up for it. R Ashwin, on many occasions, has spoken about going to bed thinking the game is gone but he and the spinners (or batters) bounce back to win at home. And when a team wins, captaincy seldom gets questioned. Sharma’s first stint at captaincy in overseas Tests was the 2023 WTC final against Australia and the cracks were clearly visible. It has continued in South Africa, Adelaide and Brisbane as well.
As for his batting, the problem could be completely different.
Let’s look at the best Sharma has batted in Test cricket. India tour of England 2021. He had worked on his technique, and it showed. Sharma, taking a leg-stump guard, would have his back-lift right behind with a slight shuffle across before facing the delivery. The shuffle across was so minuscule that he would slightly go back on his back leg while moving his front leg in line with it. Then he would react to the ball depending on its length. More often than not, he was on the off-stump line with closed hips which allowed him to decide whether to play or leave the delivery. And of course, the soft hands and playing it late helped. It was a litmus Test and Sharma came out of it as the best batter for India.
That, however, was three years ago. Since then, a lot has changed. Sharma changed his backlift and stance to open up in the limited overs which helped him lead India to the ODI World Cup final and the T20 World Cup title. What seems to have stayed though is the subtle changes he made and it might have been causing trouble for the Indian captain in the longest format.
Here’s Adelaide 2024. On day one, Sharma had faced 22 balls already and was up against Scott Boland. He took a middle and leg guard, with the shuffle taking him off. Now, here, the bat, with the high backlift, is coming down from the first slip while the front leg is planted a little outside the line of the back leg. As a result, Sharma’s bat came down in a way that he missed the line while the back leg moved wider on follow-through. He was trapped on the pads with leg stumps visible and the finger went up. In the second innings, maybe, he got the Pat Cummins perfect outswinger — which clipped the bails — but the bat coming down from first slip, while him standing on middle-stump left him susceptible to it.
And finally, day four of Brisbane. Sharma, desperate for a big score, had already hit the nets before the day’s play at The Gabba. Once the action began, Sharma could be seen standing on leg-stump with his shuffle and across bringing him to middle-stump. At the time, his front foot was facing mid-off and not as across as it was in Adelaide. However, his bat still came down from the first slip, albeit a little lower back-lift, as the Indian captain tried to drive the full delivery from Cummins with no foot movement. A faint outside edge did the rest and Sharma took that long, lonely walk back after an agonising 27-ball 10.
Now, while talking about Sharma’s poor outings in this series, one of the things that might not grab attention is that he has hardly thrown his wicket away going for an extravagant shot. After the series loss against New Zealand in Mumbai, he was asked whether he doesn’t trust his defence anymore. Sharma said that is not the case, and that he had barely been able to spend time in the middle. That story continues Down Under as well for all his dismissals have come defensive shots while he is still trying to get his eye in. However, considering where he is in his career and how the series stands, that doesn't matter much.
All that matters is that he scores runs and India keep winning. For at least one of those to happen, Sharma will have to pick himself up and work out his technique the next time he takes the field, which could well be on Wednesday in Brisbane.