MELBOURNE: There were only a handful of people doing their morning jogs and walks around the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) but when the word spread that the Indian cricket team is training, some Indian fans descended the steps to catch a glimpse of their favourite superstars. The vantage point was a level higher than where the action was happening but still offered a good view.
It got better when Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli started their sessions in the corner-most nets, closer to where the fans patiently stood. It wasn’t noisy or distracting like the Adelaide but out of nowhere, a comment caught Rohit’s attention.
“Rohit six maar,” yelled a fan and Rohit immediately looked up. “Who’s that?,” he looked above, and added, “you want a six?”. The Indian captain resumed batting, dead batted the next ball but made it clear to the ones watching that they will not be tolerating any nonsense like Adelaide.
There was a lot of seriousness on display as India players went about getting used to Melbourne weather and conditions. Focus remained on Rohit as he hasn’t been amongst the runs on this tour and has been receiving a lot of flak for both his captaincy and batting.
He moved down to the middle-order to let KL Rahul, the most successful Indian batter in the series, continue to open but it hasn’t quite worked for him. Since landing on Australian soil, Rohit has had disappointing outings in the tour game, Pink-Ball Test and wasn’t able to make a substantial contribution in the rain-affected Gabba Test too.
The right-hander is likely to continue in the middle-order as he started his session with spin and faced plenty of it during his long session. Washington Sundar and Ravindra Jadeja bowled in tandem with different virtual fields, and there was occasional side-arm music to break the monotony.
Rohit continued to find his touch but also kept an eye on the adjacent nets where youngsters Shubman Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal were having their knock. In the middle of his session, he even asked the throwdown specialist to start easy against Jaiswal who coped an uncomfortable blow. “Shuru main thoda aaram se daalo,” said Rohit before he took guard and resumed business.
There was occasional banter with Sundar because of the youngster’s over-enthusiastic reactions but all that stopped the moment he stepped out of the nets. With the pads still on, he stood with one hand on the hip to oversee proceedings and was soon joined by assistant coach Abhishek Nayar. The two Mumbai boys then started an intense conversation which lasted close to twenty minutes and looked all about batting and the Indian captain’s mode of dismissals in the series.
Rohit was seen shadowing the forward defence, something which was breached in the Pink-Ball Test, and also the loose push outside off which led to his downfall in Brisbane. As the conversation got longer, the gloves came off but the discussion continued as Nayar tried to iron out the flaws of India’s senior batter. Nayar was very animated as Rohit continued to be the patient listener for most of the conversation.
Three single digit scores from his four outings paints a disappointing picture and the Indian captain would look to turn it around in the remaining two Tests at the MCG and in Sydney, respectively.
His bat has been quiet in Tests since the England series at home and he couldn’t look for a better occasion to make the right noise in front of close to 1,00,000 people for the much-anticipated Boxing Day fixture.
