There Is A Huge Dilemma Surrounding The Batting Spot Of Rohit Sharma At SCG

      

Posted By - Marcia Kelsey

 

 

Image Credit – Times Of India

 

Soon after Rohit Sharma joined the Indian team Down Under, he has been made the vice-captain of the team. Nevertheless, there is a lot of dilemma about the fact that whether he is going to bat at number 5 or open, remains to be answered.

On its Twitter handle, BCCI has shared a video that Rohit is going to join the team in Melbourne after he flew from Sydney this Wednesday. He has gone through two weeks of hard quarantine after he arrived from Australia. There was a palpable warmth among his colleagues and the also made the head coach Ravi Shastri buoyant on his arrival. He also said that Rohit was looking younger after quarantine. Rohit was anointed as the vice-captain on Friday on the first day of the New Year, 2021. He is going to be the deputy of Rahane for the last two test matches in the series down under.

Rohit has found his mojo finally in test cricket when in 2019 he was relaunched as an opener. The Mumbaikar scored 529 runs with an average of 132.25 in three tests after he plundered three centuries against South Africa with the highest score of 212. He has already carved his reputation as one of the most feared openers in white-ball cricket and is hailed as one of the best and going by current forms, probably the best.

He has been included in the series in the Indian line-up as the series is leveled at 1-1 as the Australians are pretty much wounded and are ready to bounce back at Sydney in the third test that starts from January 7. The test match is going to be a humdinger of a contest and it is going to be a double-edged sword for the Aussies. Rohit Sharma was out of action because of a hamstring injury and it is very much feared that he may be undercooked.

Before Rohit Sharma was rebooted as a test opener, he was struggling to cement his place at the test level. This is because he did not have a great run in test matches outside India where his 816 runs came in 18 tests at an average of 26.32 and he did not score any hundred. All the six centuries scored by Rohit came in India where he has got a healthy average of 46.54 in the 32 test matches that he played.

Rohit Sharma has also played 5 test matches in Australia and scored 279 in those matches. His highest score in those matches was an unbeaten 63. He got great success in ODI’s in Australia but his test match average is a modest 31.

Rohit Sharma missed the first two tests against New Zealand because of a hamstring injury earlier this year. Outside Asia, Rohit Sharma is yet to open in a test match and nobody knows his quality as a test opener in bowler-friendly conditions.