Steve Smith was said to be a shadow of his best self before he scored a long overdue hundred against India in the Brisbane Test. And the adage about London buses came to mind when he repeated the feat with a much more fluent and dominant century in Melbourne.
It proved that it’s often perilous to write off champions. Now, Rohit Sharma’s Test record may not have reached the heights of the former Australia captain, but he is still one of the leading lights in contemporary cricket.
Rohit has had one 50-plus score in his last 14 visits to the crease, and his last Test hundred came in March in the home series against England, a high point for him as a batsman and skipper. The last home summer was a forgettable one and he has not reached double figures in his four innings in Australia since joining the team after the birth of his second child.
Rohit has been at the receiving end of some almost-unplayable deliveries – the pearler he got from Pat Cummins in the second innings in Adelaide comes to mind – but often he has looked out of sorts and unsure on both edges of the bat. He has nicked deliveries outside the off-stump and fallen LBW to nip-backers.
Back to his familiar spot at the top of the order, the half-hearted pull shot he played in the Melbourne first innings would have left his fans concerned. Rohit may still get over this slump in the few remaining knocks Down Under but at 37, it’s understandable if questions are asked about his medium-term future in the game.
It hasn’t been long since he was the toast of the nation after ending India’s long trophy drought in ICC tournaments. Rohit was lauded for leading from the front and instilling an aggressive intent in a team that had recently suffered major disappointment in the final of a home 50-over World Cup after dominating the whole tournament.
But that formula doesn’t always work in the longest form of the game which has a lot more nuance built into it. Defence is not just an irritating old-timer in the family, but the bedrock of the Test game. But quite often of late, Rohit has been seen to be trying to hit his way out of trouble, with hardly much success. That kind of approach may work in T20 cricket, but Test match bowlers are not likely to allow that strategy to succeed for long.
In a batting line-up that has been largely struggling and in which the best batsman, Virat Kohli, has found the going tough after a ton in the second innings of the first Test, Rohit’s struggles have forced the team management to tinker with the playing XI and the batting order.
The side picked for the Melbourne Test had only four specialist batsmen and the wicketkeeper, followed by three all-rounders who, in their present avatars, are more like batsmen who can turn their arm over. They are more like support bowlers.
What else can explain Nitish Kumar Reddy bowling only seven overs while Australia compiled 474 in almost 123 overs! The decision to get Rohit back as an opener and the lack of bowling support for the otherworldly Jasprit Bumrah prompted the omission of Shubman Gill. Whatever the thought process behind the decisions, it hardly had the desired impact as Bumrah ended up bowling almost 29 overs in the Australian first innings. The workload he has been carrying will take a toll on any player.
After the first Test in Perth, India have been distinctly second-best in the ongoing series. The end of the current World Test Championship (WTC) cycle may provide an opportunity to make a fresh start.
Time for introspection
All this doesn’t dilute Rohit’s legacy one bit. A career spanning 66 Tests producing more than 4,000 runs at an average of 42 with 12 hundreds is nothing to be scoffed at. He is also credited with taking forward the good work done during the Kohli-Ravi Shastri stint. But the asterisk of the first home series defeat in 12 years will always remain on Rohit’s record.
Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane were at the helm when India triumphed Down Under on their last two visits, and if Rohit can’t complete the hat-trick and fails to secure a spot in the WTC final, that may also be counted against the captain, despite the current side being in transition and several senior players in the autumn of their careers.
Test cricket is a cruel game and there is no place to hide in the middle, especially if you are the captain. In the final analysis, the only yardstick to judge a batsman is runs. The current iteration of the Australian team is not their strongest, but bowling is still their stronger suit. There is no shame in getting out to class operators like Cummins, but appearing clueless and a seemingly walking wicket is not how Rohit would like to bow out of the game.
Many of the best in the game have found a trip to Australia a bridge too far at the fag end of their careers – Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman come to mind after the ill-fated 2011-12 series.
But as Smith has shown, it’s not always doom and gloom. One can turn things around when people start doubting a top player’s credentials. Motivation and the desire to put in the hard yards are often crucial factors as one gets older. Marnus Labuschagne was a wreck in Perth and there were calls to drop him from the side, but though he is still not at his best, the Australia No. 3 has worked hard to get some runs and remain useful to the team.
At the current stage of his career, Rohit doesn’t have anything to prove to anyone – other than to himself that he still brings some value to the side. It’s up to him to look into the mirror and ask himself some tough questions, and give some honest answers.