India skipper Rohit Sharma recently acknowledged the pivotal roles played by Virat Kohli and Ravi Shastri in reviving his Test career.
Rohit recalled how the then Test captain Kohli and former head coach Shastri encouraged him to play as an opener in a red-ball practice match, where he bagged a first-ball duck.
Despite this initial setback, Rohit got the backing of Kohli and Shastri. The right-hander repaid the faith of the team management as he played a scintillating knock of 176 against South Africa in his maiden Test innings at the top of the order.
"In the second innings, I was very grateful to Ravi Shastri and Virat Kohli for giving me the opportunity to bat up the order. It wasn’t an easy decision to promote me in Tests. They trusted me," Rohit said while speaking on Jatin Sapru's YouTube channel.
"They asked me to play one practice match, which I did. I got out on the very first ball, but I realized that I didn’t have any other choice. It felt like a second birth in Test cricket. I knew I had to grab this opportunity, whether it meant opening, batting at No. 5 or 6, or even lower down the order," he added.
Despite making his Test debut in 2013, Rohit Sharma failed to cement his spot in the team until he started opening the innings. He played 27 Tests till 2018, amassing 1585 runs with three hundreds and 10 half-centuries.
When he was offered the opportunity to bat at the top, Rohit embraced the challenge and decided to play his natural game.
"My response to them was clear: I’ll play my natural game and won’t take the pressure of trying to survive. I’m going to play freely. If the ball is there, whether it’s the first ball of the Test or not, I’m going to hit it. They gave me the freedom to do what I wanted."
Rohit also revealed that Shastri had been asking him about opening in Tests since 2015. "Ravi Bhai was very eager for me to open in Tests for a long time. He told me in 2015 that I should consider it as an option. He wanted me to open, but the decision wasn’t in my hands."
The move to open the innings turned out to be a turning point in Rohit Sharma’s Test career. Since taking up the opener’s role, he has aggregated 2594 runs in 34 Tests, including nine centuries and seven fifties.
