Sanjay Manjrekar gives his take on Rohit Sharma opening the innings at the MCG
Rohit Sharma decided to open in the fourth Test against Australia at the MCG after batting at number six in the previous two Tests.
Follow Us
Rohit Sharma (Via X)
Rohit Sharma has been lacklustre with the bat in Test cricket for quite some time. In the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024/25, he missed the first Test in Perth due to the birth of his son. KL Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal opened the innings. They stitched together a match-winning partnership.
When Sharma was back for the second Test in Adelaide, he decided to not disturb the opening partnership of Rahul and Jaiswal and bat at number six in Adelaide and Brisbane. However, after failures in both tests, he decided to open the innings yet again in Melbourne.
Sharma did not perform with the bat in the first innings of the MCG test, as he was dismissed for just three runs by Pat Cummins. Former India cricketer and current analyst Sanjay Manjrekar recalled a similar incident when a successful opening partnership of Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag was dismantled to play Sachin Tendulkar as the opener in Australia.
The 50-over tri-series had Sri Lanka as the third team. Gambhir and Sehwag had a great run as openers and that opening pair was dismantled to allow Tendulkar to play in that position. One of them was rested every game to have Tendulkar opening for India.
Sanjay Manjrekar said on commentary.
Sharma has clearly lost his footing in Test cricket with a string of low scores in this format. Moreover, he is looking clueless as a Test captain on the field, as India is winless in the last five matches under his leadership.
Former BCCI selector MSK Prasada criticises Rohit Sharma
Former BCCI selector MSK Prasad lashed out at Sharma after his performance with the bat and as a Test captain. He talked about how India were whitewashed for the first time at home in a three-match Test series. Moreover, India won the first Test in the ongoing series under the captaincy of Jasprit Bumrah, but he had to step away as soon as Sharma was available for the tour.
We raised the topic about Rohit Sharma’s captaincy. Heading into this series, we had a three-match series against New Zealand. It was pathetic. Never happened in the history of Indian cricket that we lost back-to-back three games, and Rohit was totally sorted out. He had absolutely no runs in that series. And here, he didn’t play the first game. Bumrah led the side very well. So he comes after the backdrop of continuous failures.
MSK Prasad said
At the end of Day 3 in the fourth Test, India has scored 358 runs for the loss of nine wickets. They still trail by 116 runs. Yashasvi Jaiswal was run out for 82 runs at the end of yesterday’s play, while Nitish Kumar Reddy scored his debut century the next day.
Stay Updated!
Rohit Sarkar
(245 Articles Published)