On Sunday, former Indian cricket greats raised concerns over captain Rohit Sharma’s form after he was dismissed cheaply twice in Adelaide against Australia, as the visitors suffered a 10-wicket defeat in the second Test of the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy series. While Madan Lal drew attention to Rohit’s diminishing numbers in the format, Harbhajan Singh and Cheteshwar Pujara expressed worries that it might affect his role as captain.
Rohit had hoped for a grand re-entry to the Indian team, despite taking on middle-order responsibilities for the first time in six years, but was confronted with a harsh reality as he registered scores of just 3 and 6 in both innings of the pink-ball Test. This followed a disappointing series against Bangladesh and a series of underwhelming performances against New Zealand. In his last six Test matches since September 2024, he has scored only 142 runs at an average of 11.83, with just one half-century.
“Questions will be raised on his form. He has had a lot of failures. He is a top-class player, but you have to score runs,” Madan said. “Sometimes, when your form is not good, it reflects on your captaincy. The form is one match away, but he has to score runs. No matter what position he plays, his runs are important because he is a world-class player. You can only stop criticizing players by scoring runs,“‘It could affect Rohit’s captaincy’ he added.
During a discussion on Star Sports, Harbhajan and Pujara echoed similar concerns about Rohit’s form, but were particularly worried that his declining performances with the bat could impact his captaincy, which was already under evaluation during the Adelaide Test.
“Firstly, I would want Rohit Sharma to come back into form as soon as possible because when he will make runs, you will see the difference in his captaincy,” Pujara said.
“Whenever a captain is out of form in batting, then it leaves an impact on the captaincy as well. I feel that whenever he will score runs, it will have a positive impact on his captaincy as well,” he added.
#Pujara and #Harbhajan share insights on the Pink Ball Test under #RohitSharma's captaincy and what can be done better in the 3rd Test of the #BorderGavaskarTrophy 📝#AUSvINDOnStar 3rd Test 👉 SAT, 14th DEC, 5:20 AM onwards! | #ToughestRivalry pic.twitter.com/nhUrT702GQ
— Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) December 8, 2024
“I would want Rohit Sharma the captain to score runs. When the runs will be scored, he will think in a better way and will do a lot better things. Any player in the world is always worried if he is not performing well,” Harbhajan noted.
“If a player scores runs or takes wickets, then he takes better decisions. So, let’s hope that Rohit Sharma scores runs so that he does well as a captain,” he added.
Jasir Basharat is a cricket enthusiast capturing the heart of the game through insightful analysis and storytelling sharing his passion for the sport through engaging narratives. He is a business graduate from University of Kashmir.
