NEW DELHI: Indian captain Rohit Sharma, who had opted to bat lower down the order in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy – a move that failed to yield the desired results – is likely to return to his customary opening role in the ongoing fourth Test against Australia at the MCG, according to assistant coach Abhishek Nayar.
Rohit managed only 19 runs batting at number six in the second and third Tests. With the batting order reshuffle, KL Rahul will bat at number three as India has dropped Shubman Gill.
“Yes, Rohit will come up in the order and more likely than not, he will open the innings,” Nayar told reporters on Thursday after the first day’s play of the Boxing Day Test.
Nayar also explained the reasoning behind excluding Gill for the Boxing Day Test.
“I just feel for a young player in a position like that, a big day, he wants to make his mark. He understands it’s the team’s requirement and it’s unfortunate, but I wouldn’t say that he’s been dropped per se. It’s just unfortunate that he couldn’t find his place in this game,” he said.
He provided a detailed explanation of why selecting Washington over Gill for the MCG Test was a logical choice.
“A lot of the decisions when they are made, and the process of it being made, the communication is always there and transparency is there. It’s pretty obvious that we felt in these conditions, looking at the pitch, having Washy in the bowling attack will give us that variation, especially towards the end once the ball gets old,” he said.
“Post the 50 overs, we felt that was an area that we wanted to get better at. We felt Washy could give us that solidarity with Jaddu (Ravindra Jadeja), especially the way Travis Head and Alex Carey were getting runs lower down. So we felt having an offie in the ranks will provide us with that.”
Talking about the match, Australia’s top four all notched scores of 50 or more, taking command on day one, with teenage opener Sam Konstas stealing the spotlight.
Batting first after captain Pat Cummins won the toss on a sweltering day, the hosts ended the day at 311/6 in front of over 87,000 fans at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
They capitalised on some erratic early bowling and a blistering start from Konstas.
The 19-year-old, in a debut to remember, smashed an electrifying 60 off 65 balls, hammering 18 runs in a single over off Jasprit Bumrah and sharing a fiery exchange with superstar Virat Kohli.
