Rohit Sharma was the toast of Indian victory in the first Test against Australia in Nagpur, as despite the bowlers taking the credit for the win, his brilliant century on the same pitch on which the opposition was bundled for 177, was lauded by one and all.
Rohit’s century was a tale of two halves, as on day one, he blasted Australia bowlers to all parts of the Nagpur stadium, but on day two, when things got tough, he played sedately and completed a brilliant 9th Test ton, his first since becoming India’s Test captain last year.
India keeper-batter Dinesh Karthik says that Rohit Sharma’s achievements as a Test opener is not celebrated enough and has no doubts that all-format captain Rohit is a world-class batter in the modern era.
Rohit was promoted to the Test opener's slot in 2019 against South Africa at home and he hammered a double ton and a century in each innings of a Test in that series. When it comes to playing the longest format, Rohit has the second-highest batting average as an opening batter. The Indian skipper (57.65) is only behind Herbert Sutcliffe, who averaged 61.10 in 83 innings.
“There is no doubt about that, I think he is a world-class batsman. He is arguably one of the best batsmen across formats that have played for the country. He recently with his hundred goes on to become the 1st Indian captain to score a hundred in all formats. His record in India is upwards of 75 which is a phenomenal average to have. And the moment he shifted from being a middle-order batsman to an opener in white-ball cricket, things changed dramatically and in Test cricket, the landscape of what he has become as a batsman has changed phenomenally," Karthik told Cricbuzz.
With his 120 against Australia, Rohit became the first Indian skipper to score centuries across all formats and fourth overall. He has an incredible average of 75.2 which is the second-best for any player (with a minimum of 30 innings) in Test cricket at home, just behind Sir Donald Bradman’s 98.22 in the 50 innings.
"You can see, he enjoys batting. He relishes the opportunity to bat fast bowlers first up and then go on to play spinners. He is someone who is very special to India and I sometimes feel, he is not celebrated enough as a Test opener. He has got a lot of credentials in white-ball format. People speak about his accolades in the white-ball format. But as a Test opener, he has been really good in the limited time that he has done it,” Karthik added.
Rohit has slammed eight hundreds and six half-centuries in 21 Test matches at home and has a total of 3257 runs in 46 Test matches for India.
