Rohit Sharma will be feeling a lot of pressure both as a captain and as a batter when he leads the Indian team in the third Test of the Border Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) against Australia in Brisbane, beginning December 14.
India captain has had a torrid time of late, not marshalling his troops like he used to and also not delivering the goods when it comes to batting. India have lost four of their last five Tests. The only time the team won, which was the 295-run victory in the first Test of the BGT in Perth, Jasprit Bumrah was the captain. And former Australia batter Simon Katich believes Bumrah was “far superior” with his decision-making on the field.
IND vs AUS: Rohit Sharma has had a terrible time with the bat in whites
Bumrah handed over captaincy back to Rohit in Adelaide once he joined the team after returning from paternity leave following the birth of his child. India lost the match by 10 wickets. Before that, Rohit-led India were whitewashed 3-0 in their own backyard by New Zealand.
“When you compare the two results, obviously in Perth Rohit Sharma missed out, I thought Bumrah’s captaincy, and particularly the use of his bowlers in the length that they bowled, was far superior to what we saw in Adelaide. In Perth, late on Day 1 when Australia were 67 for 7, India attacked the stumps and bowled much fuller and straighter lengths,” said Katich while speaking on ‘Around the Wicket’ podcast.
The Australian went on to analyse that Rohit has to be more “proactive” as a captain while observing how his bowlers are bowling and then take decisions swiftly.
“When you look at the pitch map for Adelaide, on the night of Day 1, they (Indian bowlers) were a lot shorter and wider, and around the 7-8 meter mark. So they missed a trick. Rohit Sharma was at first slip; he saw it all unfold. He needs to be a bit more proactive with his quicks when that’s happening. Because Australia got out of jail in that session only being one down and as a result, went on to win the Test,” Katich added.
India’s over dependence on Jasprit Bumrah visible in Adelaide
Interestingly, Rohit sacrificed his opening slot to let the settled pair of KL Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal, who added 201 runs as openers in second innings at Perth, start the innings in Adelaide as well. However, Rohit could score only 3 and 6 while batting in the middle order.
It extended Rohit’s poor run, after he had aggregated just 133 runs in his previous 10 Test innings.
Whether the skipper returns to open, where he is comfortable the most, in Brisbane remains to be seen. But it’s quite evident that Rohit’s poor form with the bat is affecting his captaincy.
