India have been boosted with Rohit Sharma’s return for the second Test against Australia in Adelaide. For the unversed, the skipper had missed the series opener in Perth for the birth of his second child, Ahaan and joined the team later. He played the pink-ball warm-up game against the Prime Minister’s XI but didn’t open the innings.
Rohit batted at four allowing KL Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal to open the innings. This has triggered speculations about the 37-year-old sacrificing his opening position after the duo of Rahul and Jaiswal did extremely well in Perth. It is a well-known fact that Rohit isn’t in great form at the moment facing more than 20 balls only once in the last 10 innings. He scored only a single half-century during the five home Tests this season.
At the same time, Rahul who replaced him to open in the first Test, faced a total of 250 deliveries across two innings and notched up 103 runs (26 and 77). On the other hand, Jaiswal smashed 161 runs in the second innings while stitching a 201-run stand with Rahul for the first wicket. Now the big question here is – Should the opening combination that did so well in Perth, especially after winning?
Well, Rohit Sharma also could be thinking along similar lines if the warm-up game was anything to suggest. Having said that, the team India generally don’t rate the practice matches highly and the warm-up fixture eventually turned out to be a One-Day game with 46 overs per side affair after rain washed out the opening day.
Coming back to the warm-up game played at the Manuka Oval in Canberra, Rahul and Jaiswal yet again did well at the top adding 75 runs with the two openers facing 44 and 59 balls respectively. Rohit batted at four hinting at a possible middle-order shift at least for the pink ball Test or the entire tour of Australia.
Remember, Rohit batted at number five or six right through his Test career before moving up to open in 2019. His record at number six isn’t that bad having amassed 1037 runs at an average of 54.57. But the majority of them came in India, 769 runs to be precise. At number five, the India skipper has 437 runs to his name in 10 Test matches (16 innings) with all of them coming away from home.
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Rohit Sharma’s record at number five and six in Test cricket
So then why can’t Rohit bat at number three? Well, Shubman Gill has regained full fitness and also smashed a half-century batting at his favoured position in the warm-up fixture in Canberra. He should be back in the playing XI for the Adelaide Test and then the only slot for the Indian captain left is number six where Dhruv Jurel batted in Perth.
