India vs West Indies: 5 wrong signals team India gave with the Rohit Sharma obsession
The Rohit Sharma inclusion in the Indian team for the just concluded 3rd test between West Indies and India took every sane follower by surprise. For the record, India won the test with an outstanding bowling performance in the last two days where they took 19 West Indian wickets within 100 overs, spread over two innings.
They did it after day three was lost to rain and West Indies started day four with a comfortable 107/1 early in their first innings. India won and very likely Rohit Sharma will keep his batting position.
Much has been discussed about his inclusion so I will spare you the rant and concentrate on how it might have affected two individual players and the entire team selection, desperate to include a star player from Mumbai whose overseas test average hovers around the twenties.
#1 Murali Vijay - From best opener to no place amongst top five batsman
Murali Vijay has been India's most successful opener since Virender Sehwag hay days. At the start of the series he was our leading opener and part of our top five batsmen but got injured after first test.
Backup opener KL Rahul played the second test at Kingston, in Vijay's place, grabbed the opportunity and scored a big hundred, putting himself up also as the sixth batsman in the pecking order.
Based on form, it was expected that KL Rahul would stay, Vijay would come back to the team replacing Cheteshwar Pujara and that would mean Pujara now becomes the sixth batsman in the squad and Rohit Sharma the seventh.
But by dropping both Vijay and Pujara, the message seems to be that Vijay is now only our backup opener and not necessarily in top six batsman. How he has fallen down so rapidly in the pecking order after two tests (one of which he didn't play), will disturb him.