Rohit Sharma has been picked as a specialist opener for the upcoming home Test series against the Proteas after opener KL Rahul was axed due to poor form.

Just like a lot of cricket pundits, former India batting coach Sanjay Bangar also believes that Team India will be able to successfully chase down targets they haven’t achieved in the past if Rohit Sharma succeeds at the top of the order in Test cricket.

While talking to ESPNCricinfo about Rohit opening in Tests, Bangar said, “At the moment, there is no place in the settled middle order in the Test team. Opening will be a new challenge for him, since he has rarely done it in the longer formats.”

“But the advantage is that he will get to bat against a hard ball with plenty of gaps in the field. He will also not have to wait for his turn to bat, which will save his mental energy,” he added.

Bangar then went on to talk about what he thinks will happen if Rohit succeeds by saying, “If he succeeds, his style of play will be extremely helpful to the team. It might result in being able to successfully chase down targets that we haven’t achieved in the past, like in Cape Town and Edgbaston.”

The 32-year-old right-hand batsman has a superb record in ODI cricket with 8686 runs to his name in 218 matches at a stunning average of 48.53. He also has three double hundreds under his belt in One-Days.

But when it comes to the longest format of the game, the swashbuckling batsman from Mumbai has only 1585 runs in 27 matches at a decent average of 39.62 with just 3 centuries to his name. Thus, it will be interesting to see how Rohit performs in the first Test against South Africa at Visakhapatnam, starting from October 2.

(With IANS inputs)