Border-Gavaskar Trophy: At 37, can Rohit the batter stem the rot at Gabba?

A traditional Australian ploy during any high-profile Test series has been to aim for ‘mental disintegration’ of the rival captain. This time around, it seems TV pundits from India have unwittingly taken up that role by suggesting the obvious — how getting back among the runs will help Rohit Sharma in his decision-making as captain in the third Test which begins at the Gabba in Brisbane from Saturday, 14 December.

From Cheteshwar Pujara to Harbhajan Singh to Sunil Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri — the refrain has been the same, along with suggestions that Rohit should come back to his original role of opener from number six where he batted in Adelaide. The pressure, hence, is certainly acute on the 37-year-old whose form in red-ball cricket, if truth be told, has been on a terminal decline.

The Big Two of Indian batting, who had been copping with most of the flak in view of the team’s disastrous showing over the past three months in Tests both at home and away (Perth being an exception), spared no effort to put bat on ball as the visitors stayed back at Adelaide for two additional days of practice. No sooner did they land in Brisbane on Wednesday that Gabba curator David Sandurski’s soundbytes of the wicket being a lively one must have already reached them.

It’s understandable that the chin music will again be a handy tool for the hosts, who will most likely be boosted with the return of Josh Hazlewood. The job of restoring his reputation, hence, will be far from easy for Rohit who has scored just 597 runs at an average of 27 with eight single-digit scores in the 12 innings played in 2024 so far, with an aggregate of 91 from three Tests against New Zealand at home.

‘’When a captain is out of form, it affects his captaincy. Rohit Sharma is an experienced player and knows how to score runs. He is going through a bad patch, but getting a start is crucial for him. He should focus on scoring his first 20 or 30 runs steadily,’’ Pujara, the bedrock of India’s defiant performance on two previous tours, told broadcasters.

Indian fans will be a relieved lot if the captain finds a way to end his confidence crisis, but the root of the problem lies in Rohit’s craft itself. The ‘Hitman’ is built more in the mould of a Virender Sehwag, relying on a magical hand-eye coordination at his prime rather than the grammatical correctness of a Virat Kohli, whereby he always got fractionally more time to play his shots.

The slowing reflexes with age, hence, make the job all the more difficult for such batters and one wonders at the wisdom of him being pushed up the order again, which will effectively destabilise the K.L. Rahul-Yashasvi Jaiswal duo which excelled in the first Test. Gavaskar’s suggestion of Rohit doing some feet movement exercises before going out to bat is a well meaning one, but the bravado of letting him open needs to weighed carefully.

It's blasphemy to think of a plan B (read: making Rohit sit out) in the context of Indian cricket, but former Australia spinner and TV pundit Kerry O’ Keeffe had an interesting point to make on Fox Sports after the second Test.

‘’It’s a challenging task to come to Australia at 37. Rohit has averaged only 13 in his last five Tests, with two failures in Adelaide (six and three). Historically, very few players past the age of 37 have significantly influenced a series in Australia. Younis Khan of Pakistan and Jacques Kallis of South Africa are rare exceptions, both averaging over 50 during their tours,’’ he said.

It will be a tall order for Rohit to buck such a trend, but let’s wait and watch.