The former opening batter of Australia, Matthew Hayden, has urged the current Indian captain of the longest format, Rohit Sharma, to show some extra energy for the last two Tests in the Border Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) 2024-25 after he keeps on struggling even during the third red-ball encounter at the Gabba in Brisbane.
Rohit Sharma didn’t have a great time in the middle during the second day-night affair at the Adelaide Oval where, in the first innings, he was hit on the pads by Scott Boland before being squared up in the second innings by Pat Cummins. The shoulder was dropped on most occasions regarding his captaincy in that last encounter.
The expectation was to show a better and more impressive performance in this game, but that didn’t take place. A poor example of his leadership saw the home side piling on 445 runs in the first innings before the Blue Brigade found themselves under tremendous pressure at 44/4 in the 14th over of the innings.
Rohit Sharma walked out into the middle with so much expectation. He survived the last few minutes of the third day’s play before the rain came back to push for an early stumps. The sun shined with full effect on the morning of the fourth day, but the veteran didn’t look in his sharp rhythm either.
Matthew Hayden Urges Rohit Sharma to play with ‘intent and energy’
The Nagpur-born smashed a boundary through point. But he wasn’t settled in the crease at all. Pat Cummins threw a short ball at the batter before changing his legs with a driving ball. The feet didn’t move as a slight outside edge into the hands of the wicket-keeper, Alex Carey, saw the Indian captain returning to the pavilion on ten.
It was the sixth time Rohit Sharma was dismissed by Cummins in the red-ball format, carrying an average of around 20. At that position, the visiting side could have been blasted for a small score. That has already been on the back of Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, and Rishabh Pant returning to the hut on the third day.
Hayden advised the right-handed batter to display his free-flowing batting, just like he smashed quite a few double hundreds in the 50-over format of the game. He also requested the batter to install some intent and energy in the game.
“When I think of Rohit Sharma, I think of a free-scoring batsman. You look at those double hundreds in one-day cricket, his magnificence in the short formats. Or purely for Rohit Sharma’s sake, he needs to have great intent and energy about him. When I think back to Adelaide’s first game here in a long time, he was just a little sluggish.” The former left-handed opening batter expressed at the end of the third day’s play.
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“I‘d be saying to him as his partner, ‘I don’t want to see you defend the ball here‘. I want him to be reactive to the ball, and really up for the fight, because his natural game will flow. Energy and intent will take that front foot a lot further towards the ball. Rohit, what I want you to do, my brother, is play with great energy and intent, and I’d have those as two maybe trigger words for him to think about in his preparation.” Matthew Hayden suggested.
The Indian captain, who has struggled with just 597 runs in 24 Test innings in the ongoing 2024 year at an average of under 28, will look to hit the ground hard in the last two clashes in Melbourne and Sydney.