Former Indian wicket-keeper bat Parthiv Patel wants Indian skipper Rohit Sharma to play a big knock in Test cricket. Patel said short impactful knocks are fine in ODI or T20 cricket but Rohit should look to bat big in the red-ball version.
Rohit had a mundane Test series against Bangladesh as he returned with scores of 6, 5, 23, and 8 in the two-match series. The right-hander scored an 11-ball cameo of 23 runs in the first innings of the second Test at Kanpur.
Furthermore, the Indian opener was dismissed after scoring only two runs in the first innings of the opening Test against New Zealand at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru on Thursday. Rohit attempted a big shot against veteran seamer Tim Southee but could not make a connection with the ball and was clean-bowled.
Parthiv Patel said on Colors Cineplex, “If you talk about the Kanpur Test, it was a one-off. You needed to play an innings like that there. It’s okay if he got out after scoring 40 or 30 there. Test cricket demands that once your opener gets set, you want him to score a century for you, play a long knock for you.”
“Short impactful knocks are fine in ODI or T20 cricket. However, when you are playing Test cricket, the fearless approach is useful and is needed as well, but the caliber of player Rohit Sharma is, you don’t want him to throw his wicket once he gets a start,” the former India wicketkeeper added.
Patel added that short cameos generally don’t produce the desired results in the red-ball version.
“There are huge expectations because we have seen him scoring big runs many times. He has the ability as well. So if you talk only about Test cricket, short impactful knocks do not have that much significance. It was the case in Kanpur but you won’t get such Tests repeatedly. You will have to mostly play long knocks,” he observed.
Patel expects Rohit to play according to the conditions on offer in the Test series against New Zealand and the upcoming Australia tour.
“When Rohit Sharma goes to Australia or even in this series, you won’t see him playing innings like he played in Kanpur or ODI cricket. He will play according to the conditions. You saw him getting out while defending in both innings in Chennai. He wasn’t playing big shots,” he said.
“That is why he has scored a lot of runs as an opener in the last five or six years. He knows which balls to leave and which to drive. Just because he played such a fantastic innings in Kanpur, and the entire team played differently, there is a lot of talk about that approach. However, you will see him applying himself more in this series and you might see big runs from his bat,” Patel elaborated.
Rohit decided to bat first in overcast conditions in Bengaluru but India are struggling at 23-3.
