The curious case of Rohit Sharma

Rohit Sharma

At the age of 26, Rohit Sharma has had quite a roller coaster of a cricketing career. An integral member of the inaugural World T20 winning Indian squad of 2007 at a tender age of 19, Sharma soared through dizzying heights, playing alongside some of the world’s greatest batsmen in Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag. What goes up often comes down, and Sharma has often threatened to be at the risk of falling into the wasteland of Indian cricket in which teenage prodigies who fail to live up to potential spend the rest of their careers.

Sharma has throughout his career frustrated not only his fans but cricket observers, as well. When he is in good touch scoring mountains of runs, his style of batting reeks of lazy elegance. When runs are dry, his style of batting is described as, well, just plain lazy.

Rohit fell behind the pecking order in the longer format of the game to the likes of Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara, having to wait till 2013 to make his debut. Following an extended stretch of disappointing performances from the former mainstays Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir, he was lucky to make a comeback into the ODI set-up as a makeshift opener, filling in for one of them.

The extra pressure of opening the innings seemed to be a new leaf, which resulted in building a platform with Shikhar Dhawan to help India secure the 2013 Champions Trophy. What followed was a period of remarkable personal success for the Mumbaikar as he became only the third man to score a double century in limited overs cricket, in addition to a plethora of runs in his first Test series at home.

A key Test for any young Indian batsman is to be able to perform consistently, not only at home but abroad, as well. Sharma, not a surprise to many of his critics, found the going tough in testing tours of South Africa and New Zealand. However, the team management, showing plenty of faith in the talented batsman, retained his spot at the top of the order in the recently concluded World T20 in Bangladesh.

Currently captaining defending IPL and CLT20 champions Mumbai Indians in IPL 7, Sharma has interestingly batted at four in both of Mumbai’s games, which have resulted in losses. The franchise has lost Sachin Tendulkar to retirement, and they have tried to fill the hole at the top of the order with an ageing Michael Hussey, with wicket-keeper Aditya Tare partnering him.

It is not only in the best interest of Rohit Sharma but also of his IPL franchise Mumbai Indians and Team India that Sharma needs to elevate himself to the opener’s spot. It is understandable that opening is not his natural batting position in international cricket, but, like Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag before him, he must make that position his own for the greater good. It does not make sense for him to continually bat in the middle order in domestic cricket when that is not his place in international cricket.

There is little less than 10 months to go for India’s 2015 World Cup defence in Australia and New Zealand. In the meantime, apart from the overseas tours to England and Australia, Sharma needs to utilise as much of the IPL and CLT20 (provided his team qualifies) to make the minor changes required in his game as an opener to excel in the position.