There are reports the India captain may retire from Tests after the tour of Australia, but what about his place in the XI in a must-win game at the SCG?
Alagappan Muthu31-Dec-20243:37
Time to take tough calls on Rohit and Kohli?
Rohit Sharma is tied to this team.”I was at home with my newborn in my arms and I was watching how KL [Rahul] batted [in Perth]. It was brilliant to watch.”He was on paternity leave for the first Border-Gavaskar Test. He was supposed to join them for the tour game in Canberra. He flew out early.”I was on the plane, luckily managed to get Wi-Fi on the plane and I was checking the scores.”He arrived in Perth on the third day of the first Test, exhausted. He went to the ground on the fourth. “I wanted to get a hit as well.” He was straight in the nets to train for the pink-ball Test in Adelaide, where India persisted with the makeshift opening combination that put them 1-0 up in the series. Rohit gave up his spot to Rahul.”It was actually pretty simple for me. Personally, not easy, but for the team, it made a lot of sense,” he said of his decision to bat in the middle order.Related
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After three low scores, though, Rohit took back the opening slot. Ravi Shastri, his former coach, spoke about how it was important for India to have their captain in form. To get him there, the team had to move their best batter – Rahul – out of the position where he was having success and bump their second highest run-scorer in the 2023-25 World Test Championship – Shubman Gill – out of the XI.In the first innings in Melbourne, Rohit fell playing the pull shot. It was an unnerving sight, not least because it’s happened before. He was late on one to Matt Henry in Mumbai. He misjudged the length. It wasn’t short enough. He played half of one to Pat Cummins at the MCG. He misjudged the line. It was too wide.The pull is his shot. He goes for it on instinct. His instincts have been leading him astray. Rohit is averaging 6.2 after five innings in this series. For context, Courtney Walsh, batting eight innings at No. 9 and No. 11, averaged more when West Indies toured Australia for five Tests in 1996-97. Rohit averaged 13.30 in ten innings during the home season before the Australia tour too.”Sometimes those numbers can tell you that it’s been a while since he has got big runs. But for a person like me, I think it’s all about how I feel in my mind.”What is going on inside Rohit’s mind? He is closer to 38 than 37. There is evidence that India have an opener to take his place in the Test side and, based on the come-from-behind win in Perth and his subsequent displays with the ball, few will doubt that Jasprit Bumrah will be able to captain the Test side.India have to win in Sydney. Otherwise they will lose a trophy they have held for 10 years, and that could leave Rohit on the brink. There are already reports that he might retire after the fifth Test. But if he’s made that decision already, could he not step away now, when it seems like his presence is holding the team back and they have a series to level? It’s tough, taking a decision like that. Nobody wants to go out on a low.Rohit woke himself up on day four in Melbourne, fiddling with his fields, keeping his bowlers’ levels up, rising with every wicket, falling with every dropped catch. He was so involved with the game that his anguish at Yashasvi Jaiswal’s spills seemed out of character. Then he went out to open the batting for India in their chase of 340 and did okay. Against a new ball that was doing a fair bit, he was beaten only twice. His defence was solid. His focus on it was such that after blocking the 14th ball he faced, with soft hands and bat close to his body, he took a little while to realise that he had picked a gap. It was a significant change from the home season where at the first sign of trouble, he tried to hit out.Rohit Sharma is going through a famine of Test runs since October•Cricket Australia via Getty Images”This is a game of confidence,” India assistant coach Abhishek Nayar said. “So, no matter how much you practise, no matter how much you talk, in the end, when you get into the match, it’s very important to play 20-25-30 balls.”Rohit was facing his 40th ball of the innings. It was only the second time in 15 innings that he’d batted this long. He went on the attack. A forceful whip aimed at midwicket. Mis-hit. Caught at gully.Other out-of-form batters in this series have enjoyed a little luck. Steven Smith was scratchy for his first fifty runs in Brisbane. Marnus Labuschagne seemed so intent on not using his bat in Perth that people questioned whether he was even a batter. Virat Kohli could have been bowled through the gate for 47 in Perth or caught on 49. Yashasvi Jaiswal played and missed 12 times in the first hour in Melbourne. Rohit’s mistakes, on the other hand, were immediately and repeatedly punished.In the same year that he lived his dream of becoming a world champion, and welcomed a baby into his family, there is a gloom that’s settled over Rohit. When India were 46 all out on day one of the Bengaluru Test against New Zealand in October, he decided to face the press – he didn’t have to, those are the days the batting coach earns his keep – and went “” [bring out your swords] to disarm the gathering of reporters. He was able to see a bad day as just that. A bad day. He could see both his team and himself doing better. After the defeat in Melbourne, he looked weary. Resigned.Too much of his captaincy in Australia seems to depend on whether Bumrah is fresh enough to bowl. The runs have dried up. Rohit Sharma is tied to this team. But those ties are fraying.
