Rohit Sharma had a great start to his Test career, but he failed to keep the momentum.
Veteran Indian wicketkeeper-batter Dinesh Karthik has opened up on how Rohit Sharma had to deal with disappointment in the early part of his Test career despite a promising start in 2013 – the year when Sachin Tendulkar retired.
Rohit made his Test debut against West Indies in 2013 and smashed an imperious 177, becoming the 14th Indian batter to score a hundred in his debut match in the longest format of the game. He followed it with another century – 111 not out in Mumbai, where Tendulkar called time on his international career.
Following the right-hander’s impressive start, many felt Rohit could be a replacement for Tendulkar, but after a few matches, his form dipped, as he could just add one more hundred in Tests, batting in the middle order.
Read Also: "Team is 80-90% set"- Rohit Sharma drops hint about India's squad for T20 World Cup 2022
Given that, Karthik revealed that there were a lot of curve balls thrown at Rohit after his failure. However, he made a great comeback as he was asked to open the innings in 2019, and now he is the first-choice opener in Test cricket.
Dinesh Karthik said in the docu-series Summer Stalemate on Cricbuzz: “I don’t think there have been many who’ve had a start as successful as Rohit in Test cricket from an Indian point of view. In his first two matches, he got hundreds… and then everybody thought this is it – he is the big deal and the fact that Sachin is retiring from Test cricket, he is the one who is going to answer all those questions for us.”
He added, “But life and sport as it turns out is never exactly what you think it is and there were a lot of curve balls thrown at Rohit over the period of time. He has found answers to some, and he has not found answers to some. Rohit always believed that he had something to contribute to Test cricket.”
Karthik signed off by saying, “In the conversations that I have had, he always felt that maybe certain things didn’t go his way. Sometimes, he played a reckless shot or two but he believed that he will come back. Interestingly, he didn’t come back at the speed that he would and he resigned to the fact that maybe it’s just going to be white-ball cricket for him now.”