The second coming of Rohit Sharma
Rohit Sharma's Test career got a new lease of life in the 2019 Freedom Trophy series between India and South Africa. He had been in and out of the Test side due to his inconsistency in the middle order, especially overseas. But against the Proteas, the team management decided to play Rohit as an opener. According to the right-handed batsman, the plan was in the works for quite some time as he was told two years ago that he could be asked to open in the longest format.
Rohit started his journey as a Test opener by scoring centuries in both innings against South Africa in Visakhapatnam. He proceeded to rack up 529 runs in the three-match series and bagged the Man of the Series award.
Notwithstanding the new dimension to his batting prowess, the real challenge for Rohit, who was already a successful middle-order Test batsman at home, lay outside the country.
Rohit Sharma's first overseas tour as opener
In early 2020, an injury forced Rohit Sharma to miss the tour of New Zealand. India’s next overseas assignment was the 2020-21 Border-Gavaskar trophy in Australia. Rohit missed the first two Tests, again due to injury, and got his first opportunity in the third match in Sydney.
He looked comfortable in both innings, especially against the pacers, and scored a fifty in the second essay. He played another assured knock in the historic Gabba win, scoring 44 in the first innings.
In the home series against England earlier this year, Rohit hit a dominant 161 on a Chepauk turner. He showed his ability against the spinners by frequently employing the sweep shot and stepping out of the crease on occasion.
These performances helped assuage some of the concerns around Rohit, the Test opener. However, questions remained about how he would fare in the swinging and seaming conditions in England.
India’s long tour of England began with the World Test Championship (WTC) final against a New Zealand side boasting a pace attack tailor-made for seaming conditions. Rohit grafted his way into the 30s in both innings before being dismissed. However, it was in the series against England that he truly came of age.
In the second Test at Lord's, Rohit finally had the runs to show for the quality he had demonstrated throughout the tour. He scored 81 runs in testing conditions and shared a century opening stand with KL Rahul. He scored another fifty in the third Test at Headingly. In the fourth test at The Oval, he reached a milestone that had eluded him for a long time.
He hit his first overseas century, reaching the three-figure mark with a massive six.
Throughout the series, Rohit demonstrated the patience necessary to succeed as an opener in England. He was circumspect in defence and faced more than a hundred deliveries in five out of the seven innings in which he was dismissed. He waited for the bowlers to err and grabbed his opportunities when they did so, scoring 368 runs in the series (fifth match was canceled over COVID-19 fears).
In fact, only two Indian openers have scored more runs in a Test series in England. They are Sunil Gavaskar (542 runs in 1979) and Murali Vijay (402 runs in 2014).
Having established himself as the first-choice Test opener now, Rohit Sharma has become a reliable asset in all three formats. The Indian team will hope that he continues to do well across formats and conditions.