The former leg spinner of the Indian side, Piyush Chawla, has come to bat for the regular Test captain of the side, Rohit Sharma, who has struggled with the bat in the second of the five-match red-ball series of the Border Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 at the Adelaide Oval. The captaincy wasn’t up to the mark, either, for the veteran.
Rohit Sharma missed the opening game of the series at the Optus Stadium in Perth due to paternity leave for the birth of his second child, which saw the national side, under the leadership of Jasprit Bumrah, earning a 295-run victory with the pacer winning the ‘player of the match’ award for eight wickets.
In the same contest, in the absence of the opener, KL Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal opened the batting for India, where they stitched up a 201-run partnership for the opening wicket in the second innings of the Perth Test match. That created the question of where the 37-year-old should be back at the opening position for the pink ball Test.
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Rohit Sharma, however, decided to bat in the middle order for the day-night affair to provide more chances to Rahul at the top. He has found a decent tough at the number six position in the red-ball format with 1046 runs in 27 innings at an average of nearly 50 with a strike rate of around 60 with the help of three centuries and six half-centuries at the best score of 177.
Piyush Chawla goes to bat for Rohit Sharma as the focus shifts to Brisbane
At the opening position, the Mumbai batter has enjoyed his rewards for incredible patience with 2685 runs in 64 innings at an average of 44.02 and a strike rate of 59.05, with the help of eight half-centuries and nine centuries.
Piyush Chawla believes that Rohit Sharma will come in form for the next Test, and once that happens, his leadership will get better. He also claimed that every player goes through these off times, but it’s just a matter of time for his quality.
When he walked out to bat in the first innings of the second Test, India had lost three back-to-back wickets just before the first break, when the veteran survived the over from Mitchell Starc but couldn’t last long much after being adjusted leg before the stumps against Scott Boland. In the second innings, the situation was tougher for the right-handed batter, as he found himself up against the firing Australia pace bowling line-up under the full effect of the floodlights.
He managed to get a life on the very second delivery of Starc after being hit on the helmet on the first one. But it was squared up by Pat Cummins, who disturbed his stumps to send the batter back in the hut. Rohit Sharma now has the second-lowest average as captain in a season in the longest format with 142 runs in 12 innings at an average of below 12, with Jeff Crowe being at the top with an 11.80 average during 1987/88.
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“If we discuss about Rohit Sharma, there have been a few talks on his recent form. Runs haven’t come off his blade of late. But I feel that once he scores a few runs, he will get the rhythm back. You can’t keep these sort of players silent for a long time.”
“With the runs, he will get better in captaincy. We have already seen that in the T20 World Cup and Tests how good a thinker he is. So, it’s just a one-odd Test which comes to the career of every player, and it won’t take much time for him to get out of it.”