Rohit Sharma and his batting position have come under scrutiny as former Pakistan cricketer Danish Kaneria expressed concern about India’s top order ahead of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy Australia Test series.
Following India’s recent loss to New Zealand and subsequent drop to second place in the World Test Championship, with the crucial Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Australia being India’s only remaining assignment in the current WTC cycle, Kaneria believes India captain Rohit Sharma should change his batting position.
He specifically highlighted the struggles of Rohit and Virat Kohli, suggesting a change in the batting order for the captain.
“Just see if Rohit Sharma is still comfortable opening or if he should come in one-down and change his order a little bit because he has been struggling with the track in India. In the recent series, Southee got him out twice, and the ball will move more over there in Australia, so you have to see how you go with that,” Kaneria told Times of India.
Rohit has been dismissed by New Zealand pacers four out of six times in the recent Test series as he accumulated just 91 runs with one fifty in six innings.
Danish Kaneria wants Rohit Sharma to bat at no.3 in Australia Tests series
While it was a complete batting failure against spin by India, the dismissals of Rohit Sharma stood out as he fell to pacers more than spinners. Against Australia, Rohit Sharma, who is out of form, will face the likes of Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, and Scott Boland amongst others.
Rohit’s vulnerability towards pace and swing highlighted concerns for the Indian batting order.
“The Indian top order should be Jaiswal and Shubman as openers, Rohit coming one-down, and Virat two-down. They have to manage that. Gambhir needs to manage the long Indian batting line-up, as Ashwin and Jadeja are there, so they have a deep batting line-up,” Kaneria said.
Kaneria underlined that the team’s success is dependent on the performance of the top order. He believes that failing to score runs puts too much pressure on the lower order, notably Rishabh Pant.
“Indian batters need to click; that’s the only concern. If the bowlers take wickets, then the batters need to click. A Test is won by bowlers, so Indian batting needs to click as their top order, where Rohit and Kohli are struggling with runs.
They have to click and take responsibility because it goes down to the wire for Pant to take responsibility. Sarfaraz is doing well, but the pressure from the top order not clicking puts pressure down the line. If you don’t click, then you have to survive and get runs, which is very difficult. Indian bowlers need support from Indian batters as they should put more runs on the board,” Kaneria added.
India’s loss to New Zealand dropped them to 58.33 points % in the World Test Championship. Australia presently leads the table with a 62.5-point percentage.
India faces a hard assignment in order to qualify for the next World Cup final. The team will need to win at least four of the five Tests against Australia.
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