Rohit Sharma To Open The Innings In Sri Lanka Test Series?

Rohit Sharma’s career was in balance when out of nowhere, he was asked to open the innings along with Gautam Gambhir in the fourth ODI against England in Mohali in 2013. The right-handed batsman was given a reprieve straightaway when Kevin Pietersen dropped him with a score of 12. From there, he never looked back and is now the best opener in world cricket at the moment and the only man on the planet to score two double centuries in ODI cricket.

The pair of Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma looked odd sometimes but the way they performed in their first ICC tournament in Champions Trophy, it was enough to tell the world that India has found a successor of Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag. Four years on and still the pair of Dhawan-Rohit continues to be the best opening pairs presently. But this is not the case in Test cricket.

Rohit Sharma, who is the Hitman of ODI cricket, has failed to emulate his ODI success in Test format. Though he has a decent record in the longest format of the game as well but it is not at all befitting to the way he kicked off his Test career with two back to back centuries in first two games. From that day, Rohit is yet to score a century.

In the quest to be the same batsman in the longest format of the game as in ODIs, the Indian batsman is all set to be promoted in Test cricket as well. As per the reports, it will be Rohit Sharma who will open the inning with KL Rahul during Sri Lanka Tests. The news has come a day after Murali Vijay was ruled out of the Tests series against Sri Lanka.

Though Abhinav Mukund and Shikhar Dhawan are the only two contenders for the one spot vacated by Vijay; reports suggest that it will be Rohit who will be handed the duty to open the innings, so as to churn out same results from him in this format of the game as well.

If this happens, then it will be interesting to see how he performs as one can expect him to perform there as well. If Rohit does well while opening the innings, then it will add up to selection problem and we can once again see Dhawan not finding a place in the longest format of the game.