New Delhi [India], May 18 (ANI): Former India coach Ravi Shastri took a trip down memory lane and reminisced about how the decision to turn Rohit Sharma into one of the most destructive openers in Test format came about.
While Rohit has been a modern-day great in the white-ball format, his journey in Test cricket has been a one filled with patience, turbulence, and perseverance.
Since making his debut in 2013, the former Test skipper used to turn up in different positions in the middle order before being promoted as a designated opener in 2019 by Ravi Shastri, who served as India’s head coach during that phase.
The power-hitter’s promotion to the top instantly paid dividends as he took the first steps towards thriving in the longest format of cricket, marking the beginning of a new chapter in his career.
“Batting at four, five, this guy used to get bored. Then I started dwelling on the fact, why is he so successful in one-day cricket? He likes to be out there early. I said, if he can go out there and do it, he has got enough time on his hands to play the quicks,” Shastri recalled during the latest episode of ICC Review.
“He’s got the shots against the quicks, to take them on. The field is up, so Test cricket might be a honeymoon for him if he starts embracing it,” he added.
The first time the thought of moving Rohit in the opening slot in Tests crossed Shastri’s mind was during the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup in 2019. Rohit dazzled in the tournament, handsomely struck runs, smashed five centuries, and ended the tournament as the leading run-getter with a staggering 648 runs at a stellar average of 81.
On his maiden appearance as a Test opener, Rohit came out with the ambition of providing a blistering start and delivered it with his impeccable swagger. He hammered twin centuries against South Africa and went on to rack up nine of his 12 Test tons from that point.
“He’d batted enough at five and six, and he wasn’t here and he wasn’t there. He would get his 20s or 30s and throw it away. (I thought) Let’s put him under pressure and send him up (the order). And I remember telling him in the West Indies, we want you to open. This was (August) 2019, if I’m not mistaken, after that World Cup. He’d had a great World Cup, so his form was very good. And he might have thought of it for a little while, but he was OK,” Shastri said.
“Then he came in for the first Test match, and he opened the innings, and he got a hundred. If I’m not mistaken, he got a big 100 in that first innings, and then he didn’t look back because then he seemed to enjoy it,” he continued.
“He figured it out, and what I must say is he worked a lot on his technique because I thought his best batting was in England, where you really got to play a little differently, and especially he had to play with soft hands and could leave (the ball) a lot. And he worked on it, which was very good. So, suddenly from nowhere, he was setting up games for you,” he added.
Rohit bid adieu to the Test format last week, bringing an end to his illustrious career with 4,301 runs at an average of 40.57, with 12 centuries and 18 half-centuries in 67 Tests. (ANI)
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