India may miss Rohit Sharma in England

MUMBAI: It is ironic that the man often hailed for hitting the maximum number of sixes by an Indian cricketer in international cricket (637) is being remembered for the number of deliveries he left alone during India’s 2021 Test tour of England.Rohit Sharma, who retired from Test cricket on Wednesday after wearing Cap No. 280 — presented by Sachin Tendulkar in 2013 — 67 times, shouldered arms 182 times in four Tests on that England tour, during which he scored 368 runs.He faced a mammoth 866 balls. And he did not allow the ego of the God-gifted strokemaker to infiltrate his resolve in playing out 680 dots.That tour came in the middle of a five-year patch — starting 2019 — when he was arguably India’s best Test batter, after having metamorphosed into an opener in the home series against South Africa.That happened thanks to the encouragement from then-captain Virat Kohli and coach Ravi Shastri, who were keen to create an opening for someone who could play high pace comfortably and did not want to compromise on playing five bowlers, which meant playing a batter less.“The ability to adapt and adjust to conditions because of tremendous maturity,” says former India skipper and chief selector Dilip Vengsarkar on what made Rohit, a white-ball monster, a successful Test batter.“Fantastic defensive game and an in-born game-sense that every Mumbai batter usually has,” analyses former India batter and Mumbai coach Pravin Amre, under whom Rohit made his Ranji debut.Vengsarkar, who saw a young Rohit smash a hundred in one of the matches for a U-19 tournament in 2004 as Mumbai chief selector and chairman of the Talent Resource Development Wing (TRDW), says, “He has that rare gift to pick length early. That allows him to defend or attack off front or back foot.”Rohit’s temperament also is another key attribute that Vengsarkar highlights. “He never takes pressure about bowlers or conditions.”Vengsarkar, the only batter to have scored three successive centuries at Lord’s, veered away from popular sentiment about the timing of Rohit’s quitting. “I fear that India will miss him as an experienced opener. He batted very well in 2021, left a lot of balls and batted time. He should have waited till the tour of England and then quit.”Rohit was a beneficiary of living in Mumbai, where people bend rules to accommodate kids with special gifts. Ramakant Achrekar ferried Sachin Tendulkar on his scooter between maidans to get him match practice.For Rohit, Amre, Mumbai’s coach in 2006, did something similar. The Australian team were in India for the 2006 Champions Trophy and were playing Mumbai in a warm-up match at MIG. Rohit was out for eight to Brad Hogg, but Amre wanted people to see Rohit’s talent.“I met captain Ricky Ponting and coach John Buchanan and asked them if Rohit can bat again. Since it was a warm-up game, they allowed it, and he smashed 41 in 19 balls, hitting three fours in a Nathan Bracken over.” It was mission accomplished. Rohit was in the Mumbai team.“And in his third game against Gujarat, he smashed 205 to turn around a season in which the domestic giants were battling relegation and ended up winning the trophy. Batting overnight on 102 on Christmas Day in 2006, Rohit told reporters at the end of play at the Wankhede, “ Kal do sau maaronga (I will hit 200 tomorrow).”“He had that confidence always,” says Amre, and adds that as a coach, what drew attention was the sound Rohit’s bat always made.“He used to play a lot of shots and get caught in the outfield initially. Maybe that is why the early consistency was lacking. But once he figured out his game, he became consistent. But I still feel he did not do justice to his talent as a Test batter.”That could be because of the early desperation of not being able to break into the team. Says Vengsarkar, “India had Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, and VVS Laxman. There was no place.”When the opportunity came in 2010 in Nagpur vs South Africa as Laxman was injured, he stepped onto Wriddhiman Saha’s foot while playing a game of rocket ball and twisted his ankle. Guess who debuted as a batter? Saha.It was indeed a quirk of fate that his renaissance as a Test batter happened against South Africa in Vizag in 2019. And for four-and-a-half years and 32 Tests since then, till England left Dharamshala in March 2024, only two other openers averaged more than Rohit’s 50.03 — Sri Lanka’s Dimuth Karunaratne (52.40) and Usman Khawaja (51.08). It was a bowling dominated era in which teams played on spicy pitches to accumulate WTC points.While Rohit’s career and impact transcended stats, here is another one that merits attention. All 12 of his hundreds resulted in an India win.