MATCH STORIES
Follow UsThis ongoing Test series against England has been a mixed bag for Rohit Sharma. The most experienced opener in the series, he has scores of 24, 39, 14, 13, 131, 19 and 2. The skipper averages 34.6, the lowest among openers from both sides.
The inconsistent run has come at a wrong time for Rohit. With five Tests at home against a leading Test-playing nation and several senior players missing, the captain was supposed to be the guardian angel of this batting line-up. Meeting expectations would have also provided him the chance to build his Test legacy which has been missing due to a late surge in red-ball cricket.
However, the series has turned out to be a representation of his stop-start career in the format. Rohit can crack the format as he has shown in the last few years. The same was visible when he scored a fluent 131 in Rajkot, lifting India from 33/3 to 237/4 at the point of his dismissal. The same has been visible in many other phases during the series when Rohit has started off well but has conceded his wicket to a soft dimissal.
Each of Rohit’s six dismissals in the first three Tests came after he had played over 20 balls in the innings. While that isn’t a satisfactory number to conclude that he had his eye in, Rohit certainly wasn’t alien to the conditions.
However, he has continuously suffered soft dismissals in the series. Four of his seven dismissals so far can be attributed to soft dismissals, including his fall in Rajkot for 131. In Hyderabad, he was out for 24 looking for a boundary against Jack Leach. In Vizag, first innings, he handed catching practice to the leg slip fielder, exactly as England had planned. In Rajkot, second innings, he missed a sweep.
Soft dismissals have become an inevitable part of Rohit’s game across formats over the past few months. In white-ball games, his quickfire starts have contributed to giving India a head start and making things easier for the following batters. However, in Tests, the same advantage can be dissipated quickly owing to changing conditions and the match flow.
Rohit has five hundreds in Test cricket since 2021. But the gap between those hundreds has been too big, primarily because of the tendency to throw his wicket away against the run of play.
On other occasions, Rohit has received some good deliveries. In the second innings of the first Test, he fell into the age-old conundrum for a right-hander facing a left-arm spinner. In other two instances - Vizag Test, second innings and Ranchi Test, first innings - Rohit was done by the genius of James Anderson. These are Rohit’s only two home Test dismissals against Anderson.
The slow turning tracks in the series were another aspect in Rohit’s favor. Get your eye in and then cash in has been the trend in the series. Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rohit’s opening partner with 618 runs in the series at an average of 103, has followed the same route to produce runs after runs.
Rohit can both blame himself and his fate for a mixed bag series so far. Only one 50-plus, even though highly relevant, doesn’t cut it for a batter of his exprience.
