Ex-selector’s advice for Indian skipper

Former national selector Devang Gandhi opines that Rohit Sharma should bat number 6 instead of opening the innings in IND vs AUS 2nd Test in Adelaide. His remarks come after KL Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal aced their roles as openers as the Hitman missed the Perth Test due to the birth of his second child. Rohit’s form has been worrying and the woes seem to have been amplified after his flop show in the warm-up game against Australia’s Prime Minister’s XI.

‘Rohit Sharma should bat at no.6 in IND vs AUS 2nd Test’

Rohit Sharma last played at number 6 position in 2018-19 following he went on to become India’s first-choice opener across formats. Gandhi wants Rohit to return to a familiar territory in IND vs AUS 2nd Test and embrace the role of a middle-order batter. Rohit Sharma managed to score just three runs in eleven deliveries in the pink ball warm-up game, sparking a concern for India ahead of the Adelaide Test.

“In fact, I feel Rohit should come in at No. 6, because Rishabh Pant, too, has shaped up very well at 5…The left-right combo, too, can be maintained that way. “It becomes difficult if a middle-order batter tries to become an opener in the latter stages of his career. But it will not be difficult for an opener to go in the middle-order, especially for Rohit, who started as a No. 6 batter for India,” Gandhi told Times of India.

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However, given the Indian skipper’s form, it makes more sense for the team to allow KL Rahul to carry on as an opener. That would mean Rohit Sharma would have to change his position in the batting order, something that India would not want to experiment with, especially that this stage of Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

Rohit Sharma managed to score just 91 runs in three matches in IND vs NZ series, scoring just one-half century in his last six innings. In his last series where he batted at number six, Rohit Sharma managed to register scores of 37, 1, 63* and 5 in the two matches in Melbourne and Adelaide.