What can you say about a player who has become a dinosaur in limited overs? What can you say about a player who is the best Indian opening batsman in ODIs? Now, think about this. What can you say about a player for whom too many players were dropped? What can you say about a player for whom to be accommodated, the batting order was changed quite often in the longest format? If the answer for the first couple of questions will be great and answer for the next couple will certainly he doesn’t deserve such a special treatment. In both the cases, the player in question is Rohit Sharma.
On the otherhand, there is one more cricketer, who is pretty much inconsistent but stays in the team because once in awhile he plays an innings and India wins that game. This player is none other than Ajinkya Rahane. Let me analyse about Rohit Sharma and Rahane’s value to the team.
Let me first discuss about Rohit Sharma
As stated above, Rohit Sharma is a colossus when it comes to ODIs and T20s. Agreed that he wasn’t that big a success towards the early part of his career but ever since he started to open the batting, his consistency is mindboggling. He topped it with 5 centuries in the 2019 World Cup. A feat none of the India batsmen have ever achieved. So much so that he is now being talked about as potential captain in the short formats atleast mainly because of his success leading the Mumbai Indians in the IPL.
However, does this means that he must be an automatic selection in the Test team? Does he even have the credentials for that? History suggests that he does not have. Rohit Sharma started his Test career with 2 centuries albeit with West Indies. One of them, with Shami as his partner and then his runs tailed off with hardly anything worthy of mention. It was around this time, he became a colossus on the ODI field and selectors thought that he might afterall be a good opening batsman at the Test level. Infact, he seemed to have proved them correct with a stellar series against South Africa but then, his runs dried after that series.
He had a wonderful opportunity in Australia & at Chennai against England but he failed to make use of it. It is to be noted that he is 33 years old and not much cricket left in him. Off late, he has also gained enormous amount of weight. So much so that, there was a joke on Twitter that Rohit Sharma is in the team only to increase the average weight.
The efforts to accommodate Rohit
Rohit as we all know, started as a middle order batsman. He has all the strokes and as such the selectors and the team management felt it to be prudent to persist with him despite his failures. He was shuffled within the batting line-up all to help him score. There was a period in Sri Lanka when he scored only 10 runs across 5 innings. Agreed that he didn’t get consistent run in the test team but that is mostly because of his inconsistency and the performance of others.
Despite that, he was always part of the squad, be it test cricket, ODI cricket or T20 cricket. Still, to help him achieve his potential, someone else was dropped or shuffled. Sometimes it was Pujara. Some other time, it was Rahane (does he really deserve his place? I will come to that later) and sometime one bowler was sacrificed. Yet, his performance has not improved. With the latest failures, despite playing in some batting friendly pitches, the time has come for Rohit to be dropped from the test squad forever. As Shubnam Gill has shown, there are players who can replace him. Even a Sundar will be better opener than Rohit.
Other topics about Rohit can be read here and here.
Ajinkya Rahane, the once in awhile player
Rahane is another who had a fabulous start to his test career. He scored runs in South Africa (when they were at their best) in Australia, in New Zealand and it is hard to forget his hundred at Lord’s that India won. It was thought that India have found a player for the next 10 years. To a certain extent, it was true. He did play for 10 years but did he perform? That is a big question.
After the incredible start to his career, he never managed to reach those heights. His scores across the world is a testimony to that fact. Yet, he still managed to be in the playing eleven all the time. It was the runs scored during the early part of his career that provided him with cushion. This must have run out longtime ago but it never did and he still continues to be in the team when much better players are languishing outside. As in the case of Rohit, Rahane is also 32 and with his current level of performance, I cannot see him play even for another year.
India, nowadays prefer to play with 5 batsmen and a couple of all-rounders which means that atleast 3 of the 5 must score runs all the time. Together with Kohli and Pujara, Rahane is the most experienced and his lack of runs has become quite serious, especially when the opposition scores in excess of 450.
Performance once in awhile
Rahane plays one innings every now and then and either by design or by coincidence, India ends up winning that test. This happened in Melbourne in 2020, in South Africa in the year 2017 at Johannesburg. Earlier at Lord’s. As a result of these, it was always thought that Rahane always performs when the team is under pressure.
However, facts are the exact opposite. The number of times the Indian team have struggled in these last 6 years is far too many. Rahane hasn’t rescued the team every single time. If ratio have to be applied, he plays a decent innings once in 20 attempts and as a result of that, the team either loses the rest or struggles to draw the game. Off late, he has become a huge liability on Indian pitches. He has become a sitting duck or a free wicket. After his recent innings against England at Chennai, Twitter has exploded.
Conclusion
It is hightime that both Rahane and Rohit are shown the door. At the moment, India have enough cricketers who can replace both of them. Let the selectors and the team management not go back to these 2 players in the future. They have had their chances and have blown it.