Rohit Sharma is India’s biggest problem. Ravi Shastri says there’s only one way forward

Brisbane: With a long-running lack of Test runs and an uncertain place in the batting order, ageing captain Rohit Sharma is India’s biggest problem ahead of a Gabba Test that may prove decisive for the Border-Gavaskar series.

Rohit’s former coach Ravi Shastri believes there is only one way forward for the struggling 37-year-old to reassert his authority as a leader and contributor to the team – by “throwing the first punch” at the top of the order.

United, focused and organised during their 295-run belting of Australia in Perth under the temporary leadership of Jasprit Bumrah, India looked far less cohesive in Adelaide as Rohit returned to the captaincy.

Rohit Sharma and his Indian side were comprehensively outplayed in Adelaide.Credit: AP

Between Rohit, former skipper Virat Kohli, Bumrah, a fiery head coach in Gautam Gambhir, and a bevy of ambitious young players, there are plenty of strong and often divergent opinions in the Indian dressing room.

An example of the respect still shown to Kohli came through when younger players did not have a drink in the Perth dressing room because the 36-year-old was not doing so.

There has also been talk of spirited debate inside the Indian camp about whether to bat or bowl first upon winning the toss in Adelaide. While Rohit ultimately chose to bat, the tourists also had the option of using a humid afternoon and the confidence of their opening Test display to put Australia’s top order under renewed pressure from Bumrah.

Shastri, who mentored the Indian team to successive series victories in Australia in 2018-19 and 2020-21, believes Rohit needs to return to the top of the order after a woeful return to the team at No.6 in Adelaide. This is as much for the statement of intent he can make as an attacking player as it is for the runs he scores.

“That’s where he’s been at his best over the last eight or nine years,” Shastri said. “It’s not that he’s going to set the world on fire – he could – but that’s the place that’s best for him. To lead from the front.

“If he has to do damage, if he has to throw the first punch, that’s the best place from where he can do it. And it is important that India get their judgment right here, because 1-1 in the series, this is the moving Test match.

“I feel whichever team wins this Test match will win the series. I have absolutely no doubt in my mind. So it is very, very important that India get the balance right, because Australia have got the confidence back.”

Rishabh Pant and Mohammed Siraj after India’s 2021 Gabba victory.Credit: Getty Images

Rohit’s past 12 Test innings have returned scores of 6, 5, 23, 8, 2, 52, 0, 8, 18, 11, 3 and 6, meaning he has little to lose by trying to go on the attack. That aggressive, proactive Rohit has been a source of some threat to Australia in recent times, not least when he destroyed Mitchell Starc in the Twenty20 World Cup this year.

Shastri, who spoke evocatively of his long history in Australia at the first annual Usman Khawaja Foundation lunch at the Gabba on Thursday, said that the unity of the team four years ago, despite stringent COVID-19 biosecurity, was critical to victory.

“Being locked up and then having to give their best in the middle, and in a country like India where there’s 1.4 billion people, there’s no sympathy,” he said. “‘To hell with COVID, what’s COVID, jolly well win the Test match’. That’s all they want. So there’s no hiding in our part of the world.

“In COVID, the first Test match you start with five bowlers and the same five bowlers don’t play the last Test. That says it all, it’s like Australia playing without these five bowlers in the last Test of the series, it’s a different ball game. Plus you didn’t have quite a few batsmen as well. So it’s a tribute to the players.

“You can only do so much as a coach from behind the scenes. At the end of it, it’s the players who have to go out there and do their job and they were magnificent.”

He recalled how a dismissed batter, Shubman Gill, had stepped up to advise Rishabh Pant of how to navigate the last portion of the memorable fourth innings chase that delivered victory for the tourists here in January 2021.

“I’ll never forget it,” Shastri said. “Last session, 140 runs to get. We had two different change rooms because of COVID. I went down from the coaches’ room to have a chat with either Rishabh or [Chateshwar] Pujara. When I was about to reach the toilet, I heard a conversation between Gill and Pant.

“Seventy-one overs bowled, Gill had got out for 91, and they were the two youngest players in the side, 21 and 22. ‘Nine overs left, they need the new ball, they’ll bring [Marnus] Labuschagne on with his leg spin, you’ve got to score 45-50 runs there’.

“They are planning how they can reach closer to the end score, and no way was I going to stop them, I don’t want to change that mindset. So I just walked past and said ‘do what you have to do’. In the end, we chased down nearly 150 in that last session.”

For India to reverse a lopsided result in Adelaide, Rohit will need to harness a similarly self-reliant spirit among his team.

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