Opener or six? Debate over Rohit Sharma’s position rages

Where should India captain Rohit Sharma bat? The question, or rather conundrum, continues to surround the Indian cricket team’s build up to the third Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia in Brisbane starting on Saturday.

Rohit, who missed the series opener in Perth due to the birth of his second child back, returned for the recent day-night Test match in Adelaide but batted at number six, from where he managed nine runs across two innings of a huge defeat. The team management chose to reward KL Rahul’s performance in the 295-run victory in Perth, where the veteran of 54 Test matches batted a combined 285 deliveries across two innings as an opener, by again pairing him with Yashasvi Jaiswal. 

This move saw Rohit return to the middle order, where he had not batted in almost five and a half years, since he was promoted to open in 2019 and never looked back. But the failures of both Rahul and Rohit in Adelaide, where the Indian team was defeated by 10 wickets inside two and half days, has seen the debate over who bats where resurface. 

Two former Indian cricketers have expressed contrasting views on where Rohit should slot in at the Gabba. While Sunil Gavaskar urged the team management to reinstate Rohit at the spot where he has enjoyed the most success as a Test batter, Harbhajan Singh felt that the struggling Team India captain should remain at six. 

“He should return to his regular spot. We should remember why Rahul had opened. He did that because Rohit Sharma was not available for the first Test,” Gavaskar was quoted as saying. “Now I can understand why they kept him [Rahul] as an opener in the second Test, he had a 200-plus partnership with Jaiswal. But now that he couldn’t score this Test, I feel Rahul should go back to No. 5 or No.6 and Rohit Sharma should open. If Rohit scores quickly in the beginning, then he can score a big century also later.”

Harbhajan, however, has different views on the matter. “I don’t think there will be any change in the batting order. I feel the batting order will be like this only. Gavaskar sahab also said that, but I feel the team management will not think like that,” said Harbhajan. “They will probably go with the same kind of batting order that worked for them in Perth. Rohit is also not in great form. So why would you send him up the order when he is not in form? I feel you should start with KL Rahul and Yashasvi only, and Rohit should bat in the middle order.”

No doubt facing the pink ball under lights and against a superb Australian pace attack was very challenging, and there is a view that Rohit might fare better when opening against the red ball in Brisbane. In the last five years, purely as an opener, Rohit has scored over twenty six hundred runs at an average of 44, including nine centuries and five half-centuries. 

However, since September, when India began a new Test season, the 37 year-old-is averaging 11 from six matches and there are calls for him to relinquish the captaincy as well, given that India have lost four Tests in a row under Rohit. Now while that can be viewed as harsh, there is no doubting that Rohit is currently not in the best form and that his reflexes are slowing down. And thus, the question remains: is he better off opening in Brisbane or remaining at number six?

Rohit has only opened twice in Australia, during the tour of 2020-21, and made scores of 26, 52, 44 and 7. His recent struggles against seam at home against New Zealand and now in Adelaide leave the impression of an aging batter under pressure to face the new ball in challenging Australian conditions. 

Cricket pundits, fans and the media alike appear to be divided on where Rohit should bat in Brisbane and beyond. And from the looks of it, India’s think tank has a lot of pondering to do over the next two days.