Rohit Sharma gets to open innings ahead of South Africa Test series

Rohit Sharma has opened just thrice in the first-class cricket till date and that was too back in between 2009-12

We have seen all the wackiness that he carries with himself and during the 2019 ODI Cricket World Cup, it was evident that Rohit Sharma became one of the unstoppable batsmen. Often marked as RoHit, the 32-year-old is struggling for a secured place as an opener in the Indian Test team, especially at a time when India is contesting in the World Test Championships.

After KL Rahul was kept aside from the selections of opening batsmen for the South Africa series, Rohit has a chance to start over and prove himself as a vital part of the team.

India are right now in a conundrum of the test opener and finding a solution for this problem should be made quickly as time is running out. The decision to oust KL Rahul has been taken correctly as in past 12 innings he has not gone above the score of 50 and also struggled in the last tour of West Indies. And since it is the World Test Championship, there's no risk that the captain wants to take, especially with the top order who are basically the foundation of the team while batting.

'Different Ball Game'

Talking about the white ball, right now there's no one in the Indian team who has mastered it better than Rohit Sharma. Though he struggled a bit during the T20 series against South Africa at home, that shouldn't be the judgment call. The last test that Rohit played was in December 2018 where he scored 63 and 5 runs. He has a strike rate of 167 in tests, and the selectors or the coach should not even think of keeping out a player who has all the techniques and is enjoying the form of his life right now.

Rohit Sharma has mostly batted in the middle order in the Test matches. His spot was never fixed in the test team. But right now looking at the middle order of the Indian Test team then there's Ajinkya Rahane and G Hanuma Vihari who are perfect for that order. Thus, the only place for Rohit is the role of the opener which he will obviously be good in with the white ball.

There's another reason why it is a golden opportunity for Rohit to prove himself in this series, the current South African team is completely new and inexperienced. There won't be players like Hashim Amla or Ab de Villiers to break the Indian team's confidence, therefore, Rohit will be able to prove his worth by making more efforts.

India has tried off with a lot of openers in 2018, but are yet to find a perfect fit. Trying off seven openers in one year looks like a team that is struggling for a start. KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Murli Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, Parthiv Patel, Prithvi Shaw, and Hanuma Vihari are being already tested. Despite facing a lot of criticism, KL Rahul has been given most of the chances, 13 Tests and 23 innings but his batting average was 22.31, which is behind Shaw (118.50), Agarwal (39.28) and Dhawan (27.36).

Looking at this whole scenario the selectors have made the apt decision to include Rohit Sharma as the opening choice for the South Africa series as he is keen to score runs and looking at his records, he definitely deserves a chance. Rohit Sharma has opened just thrice in the first-class cricket till date and that was too back in between 2009-12.

There's indeed a tremendous difference between the red and the white ball. The white ball stops swinging in five overs but in the case of the red ball, the scenario is different. The red ball has specific kind of stitches on the red leather and because of that, the batsman may find it swinging even after 35 to 40 overs. Therefore, it becomes a swing challenge for the batsman and in tests, Rohit has always struggled against the seamers. Thus, he needs to be extremely intelligent with the shot selection. If he is able to do that, there's no stopping for him and he will be able to score big in the test cricket as well.

Mumbai Indian skipper Rohit Sharma is a person who happily savors all the challenges that come his way and this is the one that he has been keeping an eye on from a long time and now that he has got the opportunity he will grab it. The player will also be playing the trial run in the opener's slot in the Board President's XI in a three-day warm-up game against South Africa starting from September 26. This will also give him a chance to study the opening conditions as an opener before the real game begins on October 2.

The road ahead is going to be really tricky for the player as even if he succeeds on low and slow sub-continental tracks, it would be a challenge for him to replicate his techniques on tougher grounds like that of New Zealand. The management took the inspiration to include Rohit as the opener from Virender Sehwag's experiment that India tried in 2001. Because this exactly feels like a déjà vu.

When Saurav Ganguly was the captain, the situation was just similar to what it is right now. The middle-order was packed and Ganguly realized that keeping Sehwag aside will be a complete waste of an experienced players' skill set and the long wait will also cause troubles for him to break in. And then Sehwag was taken as an opener in the Test cricket as well. Rohit's situation is just like that. Sehwag became a huge success and now Kohli and Shastri will be hoping for similar luck.

Vishakhapatnam and Pune have good wickets and Rohit will take most of it as right now it is a do or die situation for the player and he is ready to give his heart out for the upcoming series against Proteas.

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