India vs South Africa: Batting coach Vikram Rathour credits Rohit Sharma's mental adjustments for Test match success
India's batting coach Vikram Rathour credited Rohit Sharma's mental strength as a reason for Test series success against South Africa. The batter continued his good form with his first-ever double ton in Test on Day 2 of the last and final match at Ranchi, helping India to 497 for 9 declared after being reduced to 39 for 3. It was his third triple-figure mark in as many games.
After the side had been jolted by early wickets, Rohit (212 in 255 balls) along with Ajinkya Rahane (115 off 192 deliveries) came together to stitch a 267-run stand to help India to a position of dominance.
"He is such an experienced player. I don't think you need to change anything with his technique. The only adjustment I think he had to make was his game plans," Rathour said after the end of Day 1.
"I always believed he is too good a player not to be playing in any format. It was a good call to make him to open. With the amount of runs he has scored, he has settled the issue for the time being," Rathour added.
"Somebody of his experience and the kind of cricket he plays, if he starts coming good top of the order, it changes everything for the Indian team, even when you're touring."
Rohit looked iffy early on in his innings with Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje extracting help due to the early moisture on the track. The Mumbaikar was given out LBW when on seven by the umpire Richard Illingworth, but survived after a successful DRS review, where the replays showed a faint edge. Rohit, however, started to break the shackles in the end of the first session when he hit a Nortje delivery for a six. Rahane followed soon after and played a counter-attacking innings, as the hosts regained control.
"In Tests, you need to play through those tough spells that you will get. I think he's doing that well in this series. Once he's set, he's a phenomenal player, we all know that he can really punish you," Rathour added.
"Ajinkya showed great intent today. Whenever he bats with this intent, he looks a really good player. As I said earlier also, they bowled in good areas initially and there was help in the wicket, so Rohit had some problem early on. Of course, as a batsman, you need to survive that time, which Rohit did really well. Anybody will look uncomfortable because those were tough conditions."
When asked if Rohit would continue opening the innings overseas as well, the batting coach suggested that changing a successful pair is not an option. "Mayank has scored a double and a hundred. Rohit has scored three hundreds so far. Why would we want to change it. I don't think there's any question of changing."
Also see – World Test Championship points table