India vs Sri Lanka 2017, 2nd Test, Day 1: 5 things we learnt from the day

#5 India's obsession with Rohit Sharma has no end

Rohit Sharma the Test batsman has not taken off

There was ruckus the moment India announced their Test team for Sri Lanka with Rohit Sharma as the back-up batsman. They had Karun Nair, who had slammed a triple hundred a few Tests ago or Shreyas Iyer, piling up runs for fun in the Ranji Trophy, at their disposal. Yet, Sharma, based on his ODI exploits, was preferred despite his obvious shortcomings in the longest format of the game.

When Vijay Shankar was called up to replace Bhuvneshwar Kumar, India seemed to be headed the right way. They had an option to try Vijay at no.6 before the South African series and his bowling was also expected to come in handy at Nagpur. But India sprung a surprise (more of a nightmare it has to be said!) when they opted to pick six batsman - Rohit being one among them - and deviate from their usual composition.