I Agree With Sourav Ganguly, Rohit Sharma Should Open In Tests - Gautam Gambhir

The fans and the cricketing experts were always in a puzzle when they see the stats of Rohit Sharma in limited-overs and in Test cricket. In white-ball games, he is a force to reckon with while in red-ball format, his stats tag him as an average player, which certainly doesn’t suit his talent. Meanwhile, Sourav Ganguly asked Indian management to try him at the opening position, which was backed by Gautam Gambhir.

Rohit made his Test debut in 2013 but has not cemented his place in the format. Rohit has always batted in the middle order in Tests and averages 39.62 from 27 Tests with 1585 runs. He has scored three centuries, two of those coming in his first two games.

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Rohit last played a Test in Melbourne earlier this year, where he scored an unbeaten 63 in the first innings. He then missed the remaining two Tests of the series – one with injury and the other for the birth of his daughter. Now, when he returned, Hanuma Vihari already cemented his place in the side.

India have always experimented with openers – Gautam Gambhir

Gautam Gambhir, speaking to Sports Tak, said he would prefer to see Rohit Sharma opening with Mayank Agarwal when India take on South Africa in a 3-Test series at home, starting October 2. Earlier, it was Sourav Ganguly, who asked the board to try out Rohit Sharma at the top order.

“I completely agree with Sourav Ganguly. India have experimented with their openers in the past. Virender Sehwag opened for India and so did Deep Das Gupta. Rohit is far better than Deep Dasgupta. If you give him six matches at home, I am sure he will be able to do well overseas. If you ask him to open straight away in overseas conditions, that will be difficult,” Gautam Gambhir told Sports Tak on Friday.

I prefer Rohit Sharma over KL Rahul:

Further, the flamboyant batsman wants KL Rahul to get dropped from the side. He believes that it is unfair to give an extended run to KL Rahul when the youngsters in the domestic cricket are performing on a regular basis.

“I will prefer Rohit over Rahul and have a youngster as a backup opener. How long can you persist with someone, it is unfair on someone who is scoring in domestic cricket. Rahul can comeback if he has the runs. If Rohit is there in the squad he should be in the playing XI as well else you can you can have someone else in the squad. If he doesn’t play now, it will be difficult for him after a couple of years to play Test cricket again,” Gambhir added.

Well, it would be interesting to see how things would turn out for Rohit Sharma. The team management backed Rahul to stage a comeback in West Indies. However, he failed to grab his opportunities and that has only allowed further pressure on the Karnataka opener.

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