The Indian team are reeling under pressure at the iconic Gabba in the 3rd Test match of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Visiting Brisbane for the first time after their incredible win in the 2020/21 series, India were hammered by Australia in the first three days of the Test match.
Not only did Australia score 445 runs in the first innings of the game, they also destroyed India’s top-order, taking 4 wickets for just 51 runs. As India look to rescue the Test match and keep themselves alive in the race for the World Test Championship Final, their hopes hinge on KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma, who survived an incredibly painful start-stop Day 3 of the Test match.
India were only able to bat for 17 overs on Day 3 of the Gabba Test before rain took over the scene. However, that was enough for the top-order to crumble and leave India in a precarious position. Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli and Yashasvi Jaiswal threw away their wickets by playing needless shots.
Border-Gavaskar Trophy: Full Coverage
India finished the day with KL Rahul looking in superb touch and newcomer at the crease – captain Rohit Sharma. The duo have a massive task at hand as India are not only looking to save the Test match by avoiding follow-on on Day 4 of the game.
It would be a massive task for the duo and could turn out to be a make-or-break innings for both batters – especially Rohit Sharma who has been criticised for his output with the bat since the Bangladesh Test series.
Speaking after Day 3 of the Gabba Test, Cheteshwar Pujara put the onus on the batters stating that there was definitely a way for them to survive Day 4 and then frustrate Australia using the imminent rain threat on the final day of the game.
“Indian batters have to look to bat long. Australia will target for follow-on, but you can only avoid it when you focus on the present. There is a lot of rain expected in the last two days of the Test match, but there is no need to think about that. Just focus on your batting. Focus on how you play one ball, one session and bat on the merit of the ball. There is no need to be too defensive or too aggressive. Just play the ball on its merit and build partnerships,” Pujara said on Star Sports after the end of Day 3 of the Test match.
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While Rohit Sharma has changed his batting after the 2022 T20 World Cup, converting himself into a firebrand aggressor, that is perhaps not the player that India needs at the moment.
Since the historic loss against New Zealand, fans and experts have called for a more measured approach from the India captain. Sharma, before taking on the Test captaincy was one of India’s best batters in the red-ball format.
In fact, KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma, the duo that will take the crease on Tuesday (Day 4) in Gabba, were the architects behind India’s heroic run in 4 Tests vs England in 2021.
India played 4 Test matches in that series in 2021, before the 5th game was postponed to 2022 due to the COVID-19 breakout. In that series, India were up by 2-1 after the 4 games and that was largely set up by Rohit and KL Rahul’s brilliance as an opening pair.
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Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul scored a total of 783 runs together in that series, with Rohit leading from the front. Rohit top-scored for India with 368 runs in 4 matches, while KL Rahul scored 315. It became a common occurrence in that series that the India openers would blunt out the new ball attack by just leaving the balls away from their body and blocking anything that was bowled into the wickets for the first 15 overs.
The masterclass was exhibited in the openers switching gears at the 15th over mark. In the Lord’s Test match, one that India won by 151 runs, Rohit attacked Sam Curran with 4 boundaries, after blunting the new-ball attack. The method paid dividends for Rohit and KL as they would set the likes of Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli for big runs later in the game.
And perhaps, that is what India need from Rohit and KL right now. The absolute blunting of the Australian pace attack. To the contrary of what Rohit Sharma says right now, he is at his best when he does not go all-out against opposition bowlers. In 2021, a year that includes the aforementioned series, Rohit Sharma scored 906 runs – his best in Test cricket – at a strike-rate of 48.14.
Former India spinner Harbhajan Singh also pointed out the same. Speaking ahead of Day 4 of the Test match, Harbhajan advocated India batters to be watchful for the first hour and a half. The former spinner felt that the only way that India could rescue themselves from this situation was if their batters showed some patience.
“First thing that India have to do is bat watchfully in the first one, one and a half hours. The ball is new, there is bounce in the pitch. If the batters can play watchfully, then maybe the lower order can capitalise later. What I expect from KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma is that one of them hits a big hundred. They should draw lessons from the Travis Head and Steve Smith partnership,” Harbhajan said.
When India come out to bat on Day 4 of the Test match, in testy conditions, it could be a make-or-break innings for the India captain. Rohit Sharma, who is under intense criticism, will have the spotlight on him to deliver a magical innings, one that hopefully saves India.
If Rohit and KL are able to deliver, they will etch their names in the cricketing folklore just like Hanuma Vihari and Ravichandran Ashwin did, for their gallant knocks in Sydney in the BGT 2020/21 series.
