Rohit Sharma will be feeling the heat in the aftermath of the Indian team’s defeat to England in the first Test in Hyderabad. Yet, as he leads the squad to the City of Destiny, as Visakhapatnam is called, for the second Test, he will have had enough time to reflect on ways to raise the morale of the team. Not something he would have expected, but something that has to be done.
You may wonder why it has to be the skipper – and not coach Rahul Dravid – who has to ensure that the shoulders do not droop in the wake of the 28-run defeat, and in the rather sudden absence of key players like Virat Kohli, KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja. The reason is simple: Cricket remains a game in which the captain is the leader and the coach merely a facilitator.
As Philipp Lahm, former German football captain told author Sam Walker: “When a leader does something dramatic on the field, it releases energies that even you did not know you had.” Rohit does not need to perform a one-man haka, but he must find a way to lift the whole team with his passion when they step on the field in the second Test.
So what are some things, small if not dramatic, that Rohit could do to rally his troops?
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To begin with, he can remain calm and unruffled by the events that overtook his team in Hyderabad, including the two injuries that dented the squad further. And he can ignore the pressure amidst the rising cacophony of noise across media platforms. Above all, he must contend with what may be a less-than-perfect squad from which to choose the XI in Visakhapatnam.
The selectors have left him with one big decision to make on the batting front. He will have to choose between Rajat Patidar and Sarfaraz Khan to fill the gap caused by the experienced Rahul’s absence due to injury. No matter who he hands a Test debut to, Rohit will have to select a bowling combination that can claim 20 wickets without conceding too many runs.
Having said that, he can make a bigger contribution with the bat. For that, he must carry a greater sense of purpose to the crease. If India did not take a bigger lead in the first innings as Dravid pointed out, the captain would have to take some of the blame. He would be the first to admit that he gifted his wicket to Jack Leach when Yashasvi Jaiswal was dominating England.
It has been a while since he batted more than 100 deliveries in a Test match and Visakhapatnam will be a good place to set that right. If he can put his head down and bat longer, he will be in a better position to demand accountability and greater match awareness from his teammates while giving them the licence to bat with freedom.
It is the Indian batting unit that will need to discover the ability to courageously move out of the comfort zone by finding skills on tracks that challenge them as much as the visiting batters. With a largely inexperienced line-up of specialist batters, the onus will be on Rohit to lead by example, with concentration and commitment as cornerstones of his own shot selection.
And when he leads the team to the pitch, the 36-year-old can make better use of the bowling resources at his disposal. Well as Ollie Pope batted for his incredible 196 in England’s second innings, India’s inability to stop the lower half of the England batting order from adding 257 runs after they had slumped to 163 for five reveals that the best possible combinations were not at work together.
Having let Axar Patel’s batting abilities keep Kuldeep Yadav’s left-arm wrist-spin out of the XI, Rohit should have engaged his bowlers better to stop England from securing the lead and setting India an interesting and challenging target for victory. The under-utilisation of Mohammed Siraj even when reverse swing was an option was baffling, to say the least.
Perhaps just as importantly, Rohit could employ more tactical fields. At a critical stage of the game, England were given many easy singles that not only allowed partnerships to develop but also forced the bowlers to keep altering their line of attack. These runs came back to bite India when it mattered.
Rohit and his team were given a stunning wake-up call in Hyderabad. With a couple of forced changes in the combination, the captain needs to rediscover his tactical nous to marshall the team back onto the rails and counter England’s aspirations of building on the gains from the first Test. It is time for the leader to issue a clarion call – and heed it himself.
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