Border Gavaskar Trophy: Rohit Sharma faces scrutiny in Australia; seeks to regain

Rohit Sharma faces scrutiny in Australia as he seeks to regain form and prove his worth in the Test team.

Under Australian skies, Rohit Sharma is seeking a spot in the sun. The runs have dried up, and under his leadership, the second Test was lost at Adelaide before a doughty lower-order and the rains helped snatch a draw in the third outing at Brisbane.

Down Under, where the knives get sharpened against rival skippers, there have been the odd queries in the local media about whether he deserves to be in the playing eleven. Rohit is aware about these mind games and has preferred to train hard and do what he can in the contests.

Having linked up with the squad through the warm-up game against the Prime Minister’s XI at Canberra, the Mumbaikar has endured a drought right from that match. His scores so far in this tour have been 3, 3, 6 and 10. The dismissals were not engineered by any rash shot but more by a tentativeness around the off-stump besides the fact that he got some terrific deliveries.

That his last Test hundred came against England at Dharamshala in March this year makes his subsequent forays with the bat seem a touch meek. However, in the away ODIs against Sri Lanka in August, he registered 58, 64 and 35. Obviously, the signals are mixed; he doesn’t seem to be a walking-wicket, but inevitably, after biding his time, he has perished.

Even at Brisbane’s Gabba, he was on zero overnight and there was no display of urgency. He hung in with K.L. Rahul and on the next day, fell on 10. “It is about my mind and the way I am moving and I am feeling good,” he said recently.

Batters get judged on various factors but none more harsh when ageism and leadership become part of the scrutiny. At 37 and with the Indian captaincy resting on him, it is no surprise that Rohit is being analysed threadbare. In the same year in which he led India to the ICC T20 World Cup triumph, the classy batter, a marauder in limited overs cricket and an accomplished player in Tests, has learnt that sport can be brutal.

Unlike Virat Kohli, whose hyper-energy lures the cameras, Rohit is more of a phlegmatic character. Kohli, through his ton in the first Test at Perth, has gained a breather. And just across the change-rooms, Steve Smith too had been going through the horrors, but his hundred at the Gabba gave him a lifeline. Rohit needs to replicate this in the coming weeks as he could get four knocks spread across Melbourne and Sydney.