Time for captain to rise & lead from the front

ROHIT Sharma is the third highest run-getter among Test openers since he started on the job against South Africa five years ago. He has 2242 runs in 49 innings just below Dimuth Karunaratne (2358 in 48 innings) and David Warner (2328 in 58). His average, 48.73, is third among openers with more than 2000 runs in the period.

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At home, he averages a tinge above 52 and has five centuries, the last one being against Australia in Nagpur. Which is why, there have been questions about his on-field tactics against England in the first two Tests and red-ball captaincy in general, but not about the fact that Rohit has not crossed the 40-run mark in eight innings (13, 14, 39, 24, 16₹, 39, 0, 5). Or about how he hasn't scored a fifty in his last five Tests.

Truth be told, it is not that Rohit has been entirely out of form, or has a technical flaw. He had one of the best white ball year ever as a captain and opener in 2023, led India to the final of the men's ODI World Cup as well as the World Test Championship. It might seem like he is just going through a lean patch as any high-performance athlete would.