As India chased 147 for victory in the third Test against New Zealand in Mumbai, Rohit Sharma decided to take on Matt Henry. He looked uncomfortable against the seam movement and opted for a release shot – a term that has become fashionable these days. The India captain charged at the fast bowler and flat-batted a shortish delivery over mid-on for a four. It never looked convincing.
In Henry’s second over, Rohit was gone, attempting to pull a delivery that wasn’t short enough. One of the finest pullers in the game, he was late on the shot. In the first innings also, he was done in by Henry, seemingly caught in two minds – shaping up to play a defensive shot before changing his mind and finding himself in no-man’s land.
In a series that was dominated by the spinners, Rohit was dismissed four times out of six by fast bowlers. He ended the series with 91 runs from three matches at an average of 15.16. It was one of the low points of his career. “I have not been at the best of my abilities right from the start of the series. And with the bat as well, I have not been good enough,” he would say at the post-match presser.
Has Rohit become a prisoner of a one-dimensional mindset that is affecting his red-ball game? He made a radical overhaul in his batting approach before last year’s ODI World Cup, in accordance with the team’s changed batting template. It feels like he is struggling to get out of that mindset in Tests as well.
Sanjay Manjrekar spoke about the trickle-down effect of this, how Rohit has been paying the price for not trusting his defence. “He clearly doesn’t trust his defence anymore, you could see that,” the former India batsman told ESPNcricinfo.
Rohit, though, has decided to stick to his guns. “I played a bad shot, yes, but I don’t regret it, honestly speaking, because that has given me a lot of success in the past. So, I continue to do that,” he told reporters. “When you are chasing a target like that, you want to try and put the pressure on the bowlers. You can’t allow the bowlers to bowl on one particular slot.”
Between 2019 and 2021, Rohit had a golden run in Test cricket. He scored 1,462 runs at 58.48 in 16 matches during that period, including five centuries. The biggest feature was the way he improved his defensive technique. The 2021-22 tour of England was a case in point. He played four Tests in that series and scored 368 runs, including a hundred and a couple of half-centuries. More importantly, he faced 866 balls and was never bothered about his 42.49 strike-rate. He was prepared to leave a lot of deliveries.
In fact, leaving the ball became so integral to his batting method that when he went to the Mumbai Indians nets after the England series, his coach Mahela Jayawardene had to remind him about playing a few more shots to be in sync with the demands of T20 cricket.
Can Rohit go back to his 2021 version? Maybe, the New Zealand series will force him to have a relook at his Test batting approach. “Every now and then, I will reflect about what I need to do as a batter,” he said.
Rohit is 37 years of age and horribly out-of-form at the moment. The upcoming five-Test series in Australia (maybe, he will not play the first Test in Perth due to personal reasons) is going to be hugely important for his red-ball future. If he regains his mojo, the Indian team will benefit. Else, the tour Down Under could be Rohit’s last.
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