“India has found an established opener now. He can accelerate whenever the team requires him to. I think the team has found another Sehwag. He scored five hundreds in the World Cup and he has earned his place in the Test squad,” these were the exact words of Rajkumar Sharma, coach of Virat Kohli.
Recent knock of 176 and 124 in each innings respectively against South Africa, it seems Rohit Sharma has booked his place as an opening batsman in Test cricket. Rohit made his debut in November 2013 against West Indies and scored a knock of 177. He followed the form by scoring 111 (not out) in the second Test. Later, he was omitted from the Test squad. The Mumbai lad went on Australia tour in 2018-19, He played in the first test in Adelaide, scoring 37 and 1 respectively. Again, the right-handed batsman was snubbed from white jersey.
Indian management till date have tried many options such as Shikhar Dhawan, Prithvi Shaw, KL Rahul, Murali Vijay as opening batsman but the recent innings of Rohit against South Africa has proved that the Mumbai Indians skipper is there for the take. He can handle the responsibility of an opening batsman in Test cricket.
He has done well in one test so far. He performed similarly on Test debut as well. But, Whether he can continue in the same vein or repeats what he did on test debut i.e. fail after excellent start remains to be seen.
More, This was home test. His record in SENA countries is nothing to be proud of. Mettle of an opener is tested in away performances. Let him prove himself there.
There is no doubt that he scores fluently and dominates bowling. But, he needs to show consistency and prove himself on away soil.
Yes exactly. The real test for Indian openers would be on away soil and against teams like Australia, New Zealand and England. Rohit looks clear in his mind that wants to make a test comeback and secure the opening spot in all formats. What matters is consistency and in the first innings today he failed to continue his form. Too early to give a verdict.
