Can skipper Rohit find inspiration to ‘pull’ his side out of the numbing depths? Premium

Rohit Sharma reflects on India's recent struggles in Test cricket, facing challenges and seeking redemption on Australian pitches.

As he made the long walk across the Wankhede Stadium playing area, from the Indian dressing-room to the media conference hall located at the northern end of the ground, Rohit Sharma cut a lonely figure. In every sense of the term. Walking a distance away from the BCCI’s media team, he cast one (distasteful?) final look at the 22-yard surface that had etched his name in the record books for all the wrong reasons.

He then put his head down, as if counting the blades of the grass on the outfield. Perhaps, the events of the last several months flitted before his eyes like a film on loop – the fabulous charge to the final of the 50-over home World Cup that ended in utter heartbreak last November. The wonderful march to the T20 World Cup trophy in Bridgetown in June, India’s first global crown since 2013. And, definitely, the unexpected, ignominious 0-3 lashing at home against New Zealand, formalised just a few minutes earlier, which made Rohit’s team not just the first to lose a Test series at home in 12 years but also the first Indian side to lose all matches in a three-Test-or-more series.

Rohit must have wondered how things had come to this pass. And immediately hit upon the answer. The turning ball.

The turning ball was once India’s ally. India has had the spinners, of course, forever, to exploit the assistance from the surface. It also had batters who could play that offering without a care in the world. A little skip down the track, maybe a deep backward dive to use the depth of the crease, a twirl of the wrist here, an opening of the bat-face there. Spinners of all hue and quality were driven to desperation. Their best ball was met with a dead bat or a scything willow, depending on whether Rahul Dravid was in the middle or Mohammad Azharuddin. Batters thought little of playing across the turn – not in hope or optimism but with the conviction that the cherry didn’t hold too much threat.

Stuart MacGill, he who out-bowled the great Shane Warne when both leg-spinners played in tandem in the Australian Test side, was asked on India’s 2003-04 tour of Australia if he felt the Indian batters could read him off the hand. The Indian batters in question? Virender Sehwag. Dravid. Sachin Tendulkar. V.V.S. Laxman. Sourav Ganguly. MacGill chuckled self-deprecatingly and said something along the lines of, “I don’t know if they can read me or not. Actually, I don’t think they care what I am bowling, because no matter what, the ball invariably ends up speeding to the boundary.” This, from someone who had 12 five-fors in 44 Tests, 208 scalps with a wicket coming every nine overs. On Australian pitches, admittedly, but just an honest and frank acknowledgement of being schooled by proven masters.

What Rohit wouldn’t give to have a few of these worthies under his command. Or now, what wouldn’t Rohit give to wind the clock back three weeks and rethink his decision at the toss in Bengaluru, a decision that has played a significant part in where Indian Test cricket stands today.

The last three weeks have been particularly harsh on Rohit. Just a month back, the whole world was marvelling at the audacity and aggression of India’s batters, who lashed the fastest team 50, 100, 150, 200 and 250 in Test history in a bid to make up for the loss of 235 overs over the first three days of the second Test against Bangladesh in Kanpur. Rohit was at the forefront of that assault, racing down the track to clatter Khaled Ahmed over long-on for six, his first ball. The next was shorter and pulled over deep mid-wicket for another six. Rohit only made 23 but his 11-ball stay set the tone for India’s furious rate of scoring – 8.22 runs per over for 34.4 overs.