It Was 2015 When I Told Rohit Sharma That He Should Be Opening In Test: Ravi Shastri

Dec 15, 2019 at 6:16 PM

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It Was 2015 When I Told Rohit Sharma That He Should Be Opening In Test: Ravi Shastri

Just a few months back, the limited-overs opener Rohit Sharma got the chance as an opener in the longest format. However, the Indian head coach Ravi Shastri said that he had talked Rohit Sharma back in 2015 to open the Test innings.

Rohit Sharma, who got the chance as a Test opener for the first time in home Test series against South Africa in October this year, earlier played as a middle-order batsman in Tests. In the very first Test as an opener, Rohit smashed twin centuries. The swashbuckling batsman didn’t stop impressing in the longest format as he went on scoring his first double century in the Test career.

Why is Rohit Sharma successful in the one-day game? Ravi Shastri

KL Rahul‘s degrading performance had given a chance to Rohit Sharma as an opener, and now, the player has earned the permanent place in India’s Test team. Shastri said that he believed Sharma’s ability in the Tests. The former cricketer always has in mind to give him the chance to start the innings in the longest format.

“I always believed, he was never meant to play the waiting game. Having watched him, right from his very first match, it always crossed my mind. I would have thought my job is incomplete, I would not have rated myself as a coach,” Ravi Shastri told India Today.

Ravi Shastri, Rohit Sharma

“What I understood watching and seeing, that this guy should not be waiting to bat. Why is he successful in the one-day game? Because he goes and takes the charge. The bowler is not set, he is not set, so they start afresh. So, if he gets away, he has the ammunition to attack,” Shastri added.

Shastri opined that he had talked Rohit Sharma in 2015 about opening the innings for Mumbai in the domestic side so he could learn the techniques an opener needs in Tests.

“It was 2015 when I told him (Rohit) that he should be opening for Mumbai, that he should be opening on a regular basis when he is not playing for India just to get the feel. And it was all in the mind. People ask me how you went from 10 to 1, it is in the mind. It is first relishing the challenge, accepting the fact that you could be out the first ball because those conditions are difficult. So relish the challenge,” said Ravi Shastri.

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