There is a distinct disconnect between Rohit Sharma, February and Test cricket. Exactly a decade after an ankle injury delayed his entry into red-ball internationals – by more than three and a half years, as it were – a calf muscle tear has put the white-ball vice-captain’s debut as Test opener overseas on hold, for at least the next ten months.
A stop-start Test career that began on a serious high against West Indies in November 2013 with back-to-back hundreds in his first two matches seemed to have got a second wind when Rohit was elevated to open the batting at the start of this home season. Centuries in both innings of his maiden Test in his new role against South Africa in Visakhapatnam – he became the first Indian opener since Sunil Gavaskar in December 1978 to register twin hundreds in the same game – germinated into a double-ton two Tests later in Ranchi, vindicating the think-tank’s long-planned move to optimise Rohit’s skills by creating a place for him in the playing eleven.
Now, though, Rohit faces a reasonable length of time out on the sidelines. India’s next assignment is a three-match One-Day International contest at home against South Africa from March 12. With no official word on the severity of the injury, a realistic return to action could be seven weeks away, when season 13 of the Indian Premier League kicks off with Rohit’s Mumbai Indians looking to mount a defence of their title.
There is no such thing as a timely injury, but this isn’t the first occasion when a leg injury has cocked a snook at Rohit. Pencilled in to make his debut against South Africa in Nagpur in February 2010 with both Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman unavailable following injuries sustained the previous month on a tour of Bangladesh, Rohit twisted his ankle on the morning of the match, during pre-play warm-ups. That hastened the entry into the team of Wriddhiman Saha, playing as a specialist batsman but still only batting at No. 7, behind captain-keeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
Earmarked to become the first from the next generation to win a Test cap, Rohit endured a frustrating wait to break into the Test scheme of things as Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane slotted into the middle-order thrown open by the retirements of Dravid and Laxman. That wait eventually ended in Sachin Tendulkar’s last series, Rohit celebrating his belated call-up with 177 in his first innings, at the Eden Gardens, and following it up with an unbeaten 111 in the next Test, at his Wankhede home ground.
Those were to remain his only three-figure knocks for the next four years and 19 Tests, 14 of which were in South Africa, New Zealand, England, Australia, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. He was given a go between numbers three and six but the runs dried up dramatically until New Zealand came calling in September 2016, in Anil Kumble’s first home assignment as the national head coach.
Suddenly, it was as if the dam had been breached. A hundred remained elusive, but Rohit showed the first signs of consistent run-making in the long-format game with 68 not out, 82 and 51 not out in consecutive Tests. The prodigal son had returned to take his rightful place in the middle-order. Or so it seemed.
Then, fate dealt him another cruel blow. In the subsequent ODI series in October, Rohit pulled up lame with a thigh injury while fielding, also in Visakhapatnam. Scans confirmed a muscle tear that necessitated surgery in London, forcing him to miss subsequent home series against England, Bangladesh and Australia. In all, Rohit was away from action for five months, only returning for the IPL; his India comeback was equally triumphant as he amassed 304 runs from five matches in the 2017 Champions Trophy, where Kohli’s side was well beaten in the final by Pakistan.
His Test hiatus lasted far longer until, 13 months after his Indore half-ton against New Zealand, he was brought back for the Nagpur game against Sri Lanka. Rohit responded with a sparkling unbeaten 102, then backed it up with 65 and 50 not out in the next Test in New Delhi. Almost inevitably, the crest was followed by a trough. Dropped after twin failures in Cape Town in January 2018, Rohit wasn’t picked either for the one-off Test against Afghanistan in Bangalore or the five-match series in England later that summer. Hints were bandied around that Rohit the Test cricketer was history; mischievous whispers spread the canard that he wasn’t even keen on playing the five-day game anymore.
They say you can’t keep a good man down. Rohit’s rip-roaring white-ball form and India’s continued search for a stable middle-order brought him back into the mix for the tour of Australia towards the end of the year. Without being extraordinary, Rohit held his own in between injuries and a dash to India to be with his wife for the birth of their first child. He still didn’t play the next series, away to West Indies, but Kohli and Ravi Shastri were emboldened enough by what they had seen recently to put into practice what they had been discussing for a couple of years – the rebirth of Rohit the Test batsman, this time in the garb of an opener.
It was when Dhoni thrust Rohit to the top of the batting tree in January 2013 that Rohit the white-ball behemoth was born. Until then a competent middle-order batsman, he has since metamorphosed into a destroyer of the best of attacks in all conditions everywhere in the world. Twenty-seven of his 29 ODI hundreds, and all four of his T20I tons, have come while opening the batting, and a similar script seemed to be unfolding in Test cricket too when he stacked up two centuries and a double in his first four innings as opener.
Those runs didn’t come about by accident. His strike rate was often in the 80s and he unleashed a staggering 19 sixes in those three innings combined; he was, that said, equally assured against a crack pace attack of Kagiso Rabada, Vernon Philander, Lungi Ngidi and Anrich Nortje, playing close to his body, resisting the temptation to flirt with deliveries outside off, willing to give the first hour at least to the bowler. Rohit looked anything but a converted Test opener, though even when he was amassing runs for fun, uncharitable question marks hovered about how he would go against the swinging ball in New Zealand, against messers Boult, Southee and Wagner.
“For me personally, it's going to be a challenge without doubt, facing the new-ball bowlers and the guys who bowl in the middle overs," he acknowledged last month. "Facing the new ball in any conditions is not that easy. Of course, it's a lot tougher outside India. But I know what to expect as I have been there the last time (2014 series). Not the easiest of conditions but I will be ready for that challenge."
Destiny had other plans in store, so Rohit’s mettle as Test opener away from home won’t be tested at least until December, when India embark on another four-Test tour of Australia. Having previously been at the receiving end of the fickleness that both form and injuries can throw up without warning, Rohit knows that he has no option but to bide his time, that patience truly is a virtue in this scenario. At 32, and with immediate success to reflect on, keeping one’s composure might not be the easiest task, but as opener, that’s exactly what Rohit has had to do of late. And, as they say, once an opener, always an opener.
from Firstpost Sports Latest News https://ift.tt/3b9cWNN
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