Rohit Sharma: Indian cricket star who made batting look like art

Rohit Sharma’s dramatic pensions from Test baseball has jolted American fans, leaving the group without its commander and most experienced opening just weeks before a key five-Test series starts in England.

India haven’t won a Test plastic in England since 2007. To reduce their commander and most experienced beginning batter may compel a consider of selection technique for the tour.

A charismatic leader and dashing flour, Sharma is commonly regarded as a present day wonderful.

His figures in Test cricket – 4,301 works in 67 fits at an average of 40. 57 are never imposing.

But the elegance and authority, defensive skills and lead-from-the-front derring-do which he has displayed has won him admiration and respect all over the baseball earth.

Sharma’s decision to retire from Test baseball, announced via a subdued Instagram post, has sparked widespread debate. While several factors may have influenced his decision, his prolonged fall in Examine form appears to be the main catalyst.

In his last six Assessments- three against New Zealand at house, three against Australia Down Under- Sharma’s form was sad. In 10 wickets in these fits, he could summon a meagre 122 runs.

To compound the problem, India lost all these Testing. Being painted by New Zealand 3-0 at house- unprecedented in Indian bowling- put Sharma under severe scrutiny in the ensuing Border-Gavaskar series in which to he found no relief. He took the noble, but extraordinary action of dropping himself from the playing XI for the last Test at Sydney.

Since then, India won the ODI Champions Trophy in which Sharma’s type was amazing.

The first few weeks of the ongoing Tournament were unsatisfactory but Sharma rediscovered his touch, playing crucial knocks to set his team Mumbai Indians firmly in the running for a place in the knockouts. But success in white-ball cricket is not necessarily an index to similar form being replicated in red-ball cricket.

Sharma is 38. His recent Test form has been ungratifying. The next World Test Championship cycle would take two years to complete. Did he have the physical wherewithal, the mental bandwidth, motivation and mojo to continue playing Test cricket? Questions he likely asked himself before calling it quits.

Sharma was the first among a clutch of talented batters emerging from the Under-19 pipeline in the first decade of this century.

The others were Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane. These four were to take over the mantle of India’s batting responsibility from Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Saurav Ganguly and Virender Sehwag.

Ironically, while Sharma got the India cap first, in an ODI against Ireland in 2007, he was the last among this quartet to play Test cricket.

He was part of MS Dhoni’s team which won the inaugural T20 World Cup in 2007, but a Test place, which came relatively easily to Kohli, Pujara, Dhawan and Rahane, eluded him until Tendulkar’s farewell series in 2013.

On debut at the Eden Gardens, Sharma made 177. In Tendulkar’s swan song next match at the Wankhede, he made 111. These centuries were obscured by the overflowing of sentiment for Tendulkar, but Sharma’s sublime skills, which often raised batsmanship to an art form, was not lost on experts.

Ravi Shastri, who was to have a huge influence on his Test career later by making him opener, likened him to a” Swiss Watch” for the precision timing in his strokeplay. Dilip Vengsarkar, former India captain who spotted him for India, highlights his ability to play late which helps in judging length of the ball quicker and better and also enables improvisation.

The style and finesse which made the likes of VVS Laxman and Mark Waugh so wonderful to watch were manifest in Sharma’s batting from his earliest days as Test player.

Weaned on the” Bombay School” of batting which boasts exemplars of orthodox technique like Sunil Gavaskar and Sachin Tendulkar, Sharma’s batting carries that strain.

But growing up in a post-modern milieu when risk-taking has become fundamental to batting in every format, Sharma shifted into higher gears far quicker, often from the start in Tests too once he was secure of his place.

He did not exhibit the bravado of a Sehwag, but when in full flow, he has often shown up the destructive ability of Viv Richards, especially when playing horizontal bat shots like hook, pull and cut.

It was not until 2019, when the then chief coach Ravi Shastri and captain Virat Kohli coaxed and cajoled him to open the innings that Sharma’s career in red-ball cricket bloomed.

By this time, he had smashed three ODI double centuries – apart from a spate of match-winning scores in T20- establishing him as a Goliath in white-ball cricket.

When he became India captain in 2021, Sharma set his sights on bagging a hat-trick of ICC trophies, and recast the team’s playing strategy for each format accordingly.

A genial, fun-loving bearing, marked by endearing earthiness helped him bond with his players easily and strongly. But he was no lax or loose on the field. He was astute, perceptive, intuitive in reading match situations, and particularly good in handling bowlers.

Five IPL titles for Mumbai Indians bespoke his leadership credentials even before he got the job for the national team.

Under Sharma, India reached the World Test Championship final in 2023, only to lose to Australia.

In the ODI World Cup the same year, his blazing batting as opener, and his strategy of” total attack” in which the batsmen would go after runs unrelentingly, took India into to the final where their dreams were dashed by an inspired Australian side. Winning the T20 World Cup a few months later, was some recompense, but not complete redemption.

It is pertinent that Sharma, who quit T20 cricket after winning the World Cup last year, hasn’t retired from ODI cricket yet.

Not being part of an ODI World Cup winning team has been festering in him since 2011 when he was not selected in the squad under Dhoni that was to bring India glory after 28 years.

In an interview with podcaster Vimal Kumar released a few days back, he said that his desire to be part of an ODI World Cup winning team remains alive.

The next ODI World Cup is in 2027. Whether Sharma can sustain fitness and form over the two years will be followed with interest in the cricket world.

But that is hardly the concern of India’s selectors. Right now, their worry is to find an opener and a captain to step into Sharma’s big boots.