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Living up to his `selfless` tag, India skipper Rohit Sharma will be marking a return to middle-order as India takes on Australia in the pink-ball, day-night second Test at Adelaide Oval on Friday with the pair of KL Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal continuing their run as the opening pair following a historic double ton partnership at Perth, which displayed the art of handling the new ball and Test match batsmanship at its very best.
Both sides have their demons to overcome as they head into the match. While the 295-run loss at Perth will haunt the Aussies and fire them up to turn the tables in their favour, India, boosted by the `Hitman` return, would be aiming to put the 36-all out scorecard during 2020 pink-ball Adelaide Test in the past.
In this situation, the role of captain Rohit would be crucial, who is currently short on runs after a disastrous home Test season against Bangladesh and New Zealand.
Since his Test debut in 2013 against West Indies, Rohit played primarily as a middle-order batter till 2019. At number five and six combined, Rohit played 25 Tests and 41 innings, scoring 1,474 runs at an average of 43.35, with three centuries and nine fifties to his name. His best score is 177.
Number six was pretty favourable to Rohit while it lasted. In 16 Tests from 2013-18, Rohit scored 1,037 runs in 25 innings at an average of 54.57, with three centuries and six fifties and best score of 177. His strike rate of 60.71 also shows that he can attack the old ball if needed. But the risk of playing the second new ball looms high over him.
Also Read: KL Rahul gets reprieve on no-ball, Kohli`s return cut short in Adelaide: WATCH
Since taking up opening in 2019, Rohit has been one of India`s top-performing stars in whites. In 42 Tests as an opener, Rohit has scored 2,685 runs in 64 innings at an average of 44.01, with nine centuries and eight fifties to his name. His best score is 212. He has been India`s top performer in the history of the ICC World Test Championship, the eighth-highest run-scorer overall.
But this time, with Rohit not in the best form and KL looking brilliant at the top, Rohit decided not to disturb the batting order. With India`s WTC final chances at stake during every match, the batting order and seeing off the new ball could very well be the difference.
During the pre-match press conference, Rohit was quoted as saying, “He (KL) will be opening the batting; I`ll bat somewhere in the middle.”
“We want results, we want success and those two guys at the top just looking at this one Test match, they batted brilliantly. I was at home with my newborn in my arms and I was watching how KL batted, it was brilliant to watch, to be honest, and I felt that there was no need to change that now maybe in the future things will be different, I don`t know. Based on what happened and what KL has shown outside of India, he probably deserves that place at this point in time and you know it is something that has given us success in the first Test to have that big partnership with Jaiswal on the other side… So it was actually pretty simple for me, but personally not easy but for the team. Yeah, it made a lot of sense,” he added.
Also Read: India off to nightmarish start after Jaiswal falls to Starc on first ball: WATCH
Tonking around the older ball without its shine could help Rohit regain his confidence and find some runs as everyone knows that the batter only needs one knock to be back at his most lethal. Rohit`s recent numbers are underwhelming. Across five Tests against Bangladesh and New Zealand, he scored 133 runs in 10 innings, averaging only 13.30, with a best score of 52. His scores in the home season were: 6, 5, 23, 8, 2, 52, 0, 8, 18, and 11.
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