Ravi Shastri Advices Rohit Sharma To Show Intent: Former Indian Cricket Team head coach Ravi Shastri has advised team captain Rohit Sharma to show some intent early in his inning when coming out to bat in the final two Test matches of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
We are 4 games deep in the five-match Australia vs India Test series Down Under. India won the first Test in Perth, followed by an Australia win in the pink ball Test in Adelaide. Then, a rain-affected match was drawn in Adelaide. Then Australia took the 4th Test in MCG.
Indian Test and ODI captain Rohit Sharma was not in the squad for the first match as he was still in India for the first of his childhood. India did end up winning that match by 295 runs.
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Seeing how Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul performed well while opening in Perth when Sharma did return to the squad for the second Test, he decided that he would come down the order to bat at his old position, No. 6.
That decision hasn’t panned out well so far. A loss and a draw in the two matches with Rohit in the team are not the fault of a single player on their own. However, the captain of the team and one of its best and most experienced batters performing poorly is never a good sign.
In the 5 innings so far, Sharma has scored a three, a six, a ten, a three , and a nine. These scores coincide with India’s horrid batting performances in this series following the first Test.
Ravi Shastri Advices Rohit Sharma To Show Intent
With the skipper not looking too good and his feet not moving too much, former India head coach Ravi Shastri has some advice for Rohit Sharma. In the latest episode of the ICC review, he said,
“I would like to see Rohit Sharma’s tactics change a bit because he can still be extremely dangerous at that number (six). The best No. 6s in the world are the guys who know how to have the ability to counter-attack. They read the situation well. Yes, if a lot of wickets have fallen, maybe for a little while. You might have to be circumspect, but the intent has to be far sooner than later.”
Shastri then went on to say that if he had any control over the team’s decisions, he would have asked Rohit to open in the third Test in Brisbane. But, seeing the way Rahul batted ended up being a massive positive.
“I would have asked him (Rohit) to open in the last Test match, but then the way Rahul has batted, I mean, he was a joy to watch, and the way he’s batting, I believe he struck a purple patch. It could be a position he might just want to keep and enhance the way he’s playing because his technique was faultless. The way he left the ball, the way he allowed the ball to come onto the bat—I mean, some of his cover drives were as good as any played by anyone in world cricket at the moment. And so I think when there’s that much confidence there, you know, let it be,” he said.
With the Border-Gavaskar Trophy drawn at 1-1, the fourth and fifth India vs Australia Tests, to be played in Melbourne and Sydney, will be crucial not only for the result of this series but also the equation for the World Test Championship final, to be played in June 2025.
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