India’s current ODI and Test captain, Rohit Sharma has been a sensational batter in white ball cricket, since taking over the role of an opener. From the moment, captain MS Dhoni, trusted him with opening the innings in white ball cricket, his career changed.
He became a different batter and altogether a different beast. Sharma started to play with freedom and consistently scored runs all around the world. He became one of the best openers the game has ever seen.
However, his fate in red-ball cricket was not the same. He was inconsistent with his displays and was in and out of the side. He batted at all positions in the middle order but was not able to cement his spot in the XI. However, it was the captain Virat Kohli and the then head coach, Ravi Shastri, who asked Sharma to open the innings in red ball cricket and his career in Test cricket completely changed.
Rohit Sharma started opening the innings for team India in Test cricket from 2019
In a recent interview with Jatin Sapru, Rohit talked about how Kohli and Shastri trusted him with opening the innings in Test cricket in 2019. He was asked if he wanted to open the innings in red ball cricket and he took it with both hands.
Rohit felt that it was the second chance for him and he was just happy to be in the side anyhow. He wanted to take that chance, bat at any position and hence obliged to take the opening spot. He told Shastri and Kohli, that he will go out, bat freely, take his chances, and will go for his shots if the ball is in his range even on the first delivery of the Test match. Shastri gave him the freedom and asked him to play in the way that he liked.
Here’s a look at the video clip of the same:
Sharma also talked about how Shastri was asking him to open the innings in Test cricket right from 2015. He also recalled that when he got the chance to finally open the innings in 2019, he got out on the first ball in the practice game.
