Indian cricket team star batters Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli have been facing a lot of criticism following the side’s humiliating Test series loss against New Zealand. Both cricketers failed to score big as India lost all the matches in the three-match Test series at home. With India facing Australia in their next Test cricket assignment, questions have been asked about the duo’s future and legends like Sunil Gavaskar has even said that the five Tests can end up deciding their future. However, former Australia cricketer David Warner believes that ‘age is just a number’ when it comes to the two cricketers but pointed out that Virat and Rohit will have to perform if India want to win the series.
“It’s about using the crease; they are coming a bit wider and angling it in; bringing those slip cordons into play. I think time and again we have had some success in India and in Australia. But those two there hold the key to how India are going to go. Young opening batter Jaiswal as well… he’s a talent.”
“First time here; he likes to play the drive on the up so that will bring out the slips into play as well, but those two guys… Yes, age is just a number; they are at the backend. It’s the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Their attitude, if it’s on, they are two guys who are hard to stop. It’s going to be a big summer for Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma,” Warner said on Fox Sports.
Virat and Rohit ended what was a disastrous home Test season ahead of the highly-anticipated Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia away from home starting from November 22 onwards.
In the third and final Test of the series against New Zealand, Virat and Rohit once again got out for low scores. During a run-chase of 147 runs, Rohit was dismissed for 11 runs by Matt Henry and caught by Glenn Phillips. On the other hand, Virat was dismissed for just one run in four balls on a delivery by Ajaz Patel. His struggles against spinners continued as he handed an easy catch to Daryl Mitchell at slips.
With these dismissals, Virat and Rohit have concluded extremely underwhelming home season consisting of series against Bangladesh and Kiwis. It does not serve as a good sign for the team ahead of the high-profile BGT series. Only a massive win in the series would help India secure their third-successive ICC World Test Championship final appearance at Lord’s next year.
In these five Tests, Rohit has scored 133 runs at an average of just 13.30, with a half-century in 10 innings. His best score is 52. His scores this home season are: 6, 5, 23, 8, 2, 52, 0, 8, 18 and 11.
In Tests this year, Rohit has scored 588 runs in 11 Tests and 21 innings at a sub-par average of 29.40, with two centuries and two fifties and best score of 131. This average in Tests is the lowest for him in a calendar year since he started opening in the format in 2019.
Remarkably, this has been his best year in T20 cricket in the same period with his average (36.13) and strike rate (154.66) both the highest for a calendar year.
(With ANI inputs)
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