Since the poor form of the regular Test captain of the Indian side, Rohit Sharma broke out majorly during the recent Border Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 down under, the discussion has started if the veteran should be making a return to the domestic events to get the right rhythm and form back in his favor, if he wants to carry on in the longest format of the game.
Rohit Sharma had a smooth start in the year 2024 when he smashed a couple of centuries at home against England, but the second half of the year has been the biggest weak point for the Nagpur-born, especially in the five-day format of the game. He managed just 31 runs in five innings at an average of 6.20 with the best score of ten.
The 37-year-old came into the series on the back of his struggle at home against New Zealand, where he could manage only 91 runs in six innings at an average of 15.10, shouldering on just one half-century, which came in the second innings of the series opener, at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.
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The poor form of Rohit Sharma, along with his restricted captaincy, has worked against India, who went on to lose their first BGT since 2014-15, and that also resulted in them losing a chance to qualify for their third consecutive final of the World Test Championship (WTC) 2023-25 at Lord’s.
Dinesh Lad suggests Rohit Sharma to be back in playing domestic cricket
The experienced batter missed the first game of the series down under at the Optus Stadium in Perth before returning to the team into the middle order on the back of the 161-run opening stand between KL Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal. But the runs didn’t come off his blade, which forced the captain to be back at the opening slot. But nothing worked at all.
The head coach of the side, Gautam Gambhir, refused to confirm Rohit Sharma’s position for the fifth and final Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground, as the acting captain, Jasprit Bumrah, revealed that the Mumbai batter opted out of the game due to the poor form. Two days later, Sharma dismissed all the news of his retirement from the longest format.
Amid doubts about whether he will get another chance to be part of the side in the five-day format, his childhood coach, Dinesh Lad, has suggested that the batter should be back in playing a few Ranji Trophy games to prepare for the format.
The last domestic red-ball encounter for Rohit Sharma came in November 2015 against Uttar Pradesh, when he smashed 113 runs in 140 balls at a strike rate of more than 80, as he faced the likes of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Praveen Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav and Piyush Chawla.
“I think Rohit Sharma has only two goals: first, to win the World Test Championship and second, to win the ODI World Cup. If he wanted, he would have retired from all formats (after the T20 World Cup title), but he only retired from T20 cricket. He is not the only cricketer who was struggling to score runs. He should play one or two domestic games to prepare for Test matches.” Lad was quoted as saying by IANs.
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India’s next Test series will be in England, which is scheduled to begin on June 20 in Headingley, but it will be interesting to see what the selectors do with Rohit Sharma’s selection in the side.
“Because of T20 cricket, the mindset of batters has changed. He is a technically sound cricketer, and against England last year, he was scoring good runs. If we win, people call Rohit the best captain, but when we lose, people say he doesn’t know captaincy.” Dinesh Lad shed light.