India’s Rohit Sharma leaves the field after being dismissed on Day 2 of fourth Test vs Australia.© AFP
Rohit Sharma is going through a tought time in cricket. While his captaincy during India’s ongoing Test series against Australia has been receiving criticism, his batting has not been good either. He missed the first Test due to personal reasons and joined the team from the second game. Rohit scored 3 and 6 in Adelaide before disappointing with another low score, 10, in the next game in Brisbane. Come Melbourne and Rohit’s poor form continued here as well. He was dismissed for 3 runs off 5 balls. What looked poorer was the manner in which he got out. It was a harmless short of length ball outside off stump from Pat Cummins, and Rohit, in an attempt to pull it, got a top edge only to give an easy catch to Scott Boland close to the mid-on region.
Rohit has scored only 22 runs across 4 innings in the ongoing five-match Test series against Australia. Reacting to the batter’s form, ex-Australia players Mark Waugh and Kerry O’Keeffe expressed worry for the India captain.
“Unless Rohit Sharma can do something in the last three innings, I think his career could certainly be coming to an end,” Waugh said on Fox Sports.
“That was a really big mistake from Rohit Sharma. It is a nothing shot. It is one of his favourite shots, Rohit Sharma, the swivel-pull. It was too early in the innings. He has not got used to the pace or the bounce. It is a sad state for the Indian captain,” said Kerry O’Keeffe.
It is interesting to note that KL Rahul opened the batting for India in the first Test vs Australia in the absence of Rohit Sharma. Once the regular captain was back in the playing XI, he opted to bat at number 6 and let Rahul continue as an opener. However, in the fourth Test, there was a change in plan as Rohit went out to open the batting with Yashashvi Jaiswal with Rahul coming in at number 3 spot. To make things look worse, both Rohit and Rahul failed to play a noticeable knock.
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