Is time running out for Rohit Sharma to prove himself a Test cricketer?
For a while, Rohit Sharma has been a big headache for the Indian test team. He has been given a pretty long run but he has terribly failed at proving his worth. In limited overs cricket, he is pure gold but the longer format is just not working for him.
An average Indian cricket fan, after seeing all this, would arrive at the conclusion that Rohit simply is not the type of player who can play test cricket and have a permanent slot in the test team. He also doesn’t seem to have a role in the team. From a cricket viewer’s point of view it seems that he is forced to fit into the team by one way or the other.
When was the last time Rohit played an innings which deserved a clapping or a standing ovation? Rohit had a dream debut against the West Indies in Kolkata at Eden Gardens. There he scored a classy innings of 177 runs and in a situation when it was needed the most. This innings got India out of trouble, India went on to win the test and Rohit earned a man of the match award on his debut.
Rohit went on to get a hundred in his second test too and again against the West Indies but this time at the Wankhede. In this two-match series, India comprehensively beat West Indies by an innings in both the matches.
Rohit got to play only two innings in the series and he scored hundreds in both of them, the last one being an unbeaten one. Rohit was adjudged as the player of the series. After the first two matches, he averaged 288 and many thought that Rohit was the one for the future but sadly that has not proved to be the case.
The dream debut was followed up by a period of dismal shows. India toured overseas and while some of the batsmen showed promise batting on wickets not suited for them, Rohit did not.
On the tour to South Africa in late 2013, Rohit failed miserably and did not even manage to score 30+ in any innings in the whites. When on the same tour, players from the same team score significant runs then it means Rohit did fail in competition to them. He had a decent but not significant tour of New Zealand.
He played a single test in England and on both the occasions gave his wicket away after being well set for a huge score. In Australia, Rohit was given a good enough chance to prove his worth but his old habit of throwing his wicket away would become the reason of his downfall. On a tour where Vijay, Kohli, Rahane and to an extent Dhawan too scored significant runs, Rohit failed.
The problem with Rohit is not his technique or any weakness in his batting but actually the temperament and patience. Over the past 18 months, even Dhawan failed to play any significant knocks in test matches for India but his temperament has been rock solid and his stay at the crease is simply amazing.
Dhawan is a compact player, he does not have such a wide variety of shots to choose from, Rohit has that luxury, still Rohit finds himself to be in a spot of bother whereas Dhawan’s place is secure as of now.
Rohit Sharma is highly talented. He is the one player in this Indian team who is able to score all around the ground and time the ball as sweetly as anyone. He ranks above the likes of Kohli and Rahane in that regard but what pulls him back is his lack of concentration, lack of patience and temperament.
In 2015 India visited Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, while in Bangladesh Rohit got only one innings in the washed off test at Fatullah but in Sri Lanka he got the full backing of his captain. Still he couldn’t go on to show us the full depth of his batting capabilities.
Credit should be given for those brilliant efforts but those were some flashy knocks and showed no real signs of improvement in his temperament or patience which is needed for test cricket. This was followed by very poor outings in the last two tests against South Africa at home. He has wasted enough opportunities.