India skipper Rohit Sharma would be well aware of the fact that the Aussies haven’t lost a single Pink Ball Test apart from West Indies in 2024 where it was a thriller of a game. Rohit Sharma wasn’t a part of the opening Test match due to personal reasons but still India won the contest where Jasprit Bumrah led the side. The 2nd Test match is slated to begin on 6th December at Adelaide which is tipped to be a sporting wicket where both spinners & fast bowlers will come into the game.
Head coach Gautam Gambhir earlier had received a lot of flak when India got whitewashed by New Zealand in India in the Test series by 3-0. The coaching staff in 1st Test match made a bold decision by leaving out the veteran spinners Ravichandran Ashwin & Ravindra Jadeja which didn’t backfire as Washington Sundar did a decent job.
KL Rahul & Yashasvi Jaiswal batted brilliantly – Rohit Sharma
Rohit Sharma was having an interaction with the media ahead of the 2nd Test match. Rohit Sharma stated that he will bat in the middle order and KL Rahul & Yashasvi Jaiswal will continue to open the batting. India skipper pointed out that KL Rahul deserves the opening batting slot rather than him and said that this decision is not a permanent one.
“How I came to that decision of batting down the order is because we want results, we want success. And those two guys at the top – just looking at this one Test match – they batted brilliantly. I was at home with my newborn in my arms and I was watching how KL batted. It was brilliant to watch, to be honest,”
“And I felt that there’s no need to change that now. Maybe in the future things will be different, I don’t know. So based on what has happened and what KL has shown outside of India, he probably deserves that place at this point. It is something that has given us success in the first Test. To have that big partnership with Jaiswal on the other side probably won us the Test,” he stated.
“When you come to a place like Perth and you get 500-odd runs, it’s a massive tick in the box. What I saw from the outside looked brilliant and there was no need to change anything. It was actually pretty simple for me. Personally, not easy, but for the team, it made a lot of sense,” he added.
Changes in the middle order for India
Team India hasn’t announced the playing 11 for the 2nd Test match. Rohit Sharma hasn’t batted in the middle order since the 2019 Test series against South Africa in India. Rohit Sharma can bat at the No.6 batting position given the fact that Shubman Gill looked promising in the net session and missed the opening Test due to a thumb injury. One of Devdutt Padikkal or Dhruv Jurel could be dropped from the playing 11 if Shubman Gill is fit.
It’s quite a baffling decision and a good one by Rohit Sharma who has put the team above himself, but the scenarios would be completely different while batting in the middle order. We should not forget that the Pink Ball swings even when it is 50 and 60 overs old as it will be a stern test for both teams in a high-octane clash. Rohit’s decision can be termed selfless, but again, there will be immense pressure on KL Rahul to play a staggering knock and form a crucial partnership with Yashasvi Jaiswal.