Nayan Mongia Hits Out At Selectors For Promoting Rohit Sharma As Opener In Tests

The selectors have promoted Rohit Sharma to open in the innings in the upcoming three-match Test series against South Africa. After KL Rahul’s repeated failure, many former cricketers have pipped Rohit to open the innings. But former wicket-keeper Nayan Mongia has slammed the selectors for picking a makeshift opener instead of the specialised one.

KL Rahul’s consistent failures questionned his place in the playing XI. Many former cricketers including Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman have backed Rohit Sharma to open the innings. The selectors also thought of giving a Rohit a go at the top in red-ball cricket.

Read More: Andre Russell And His Wife Announce Pregnancy News In An Instagram Post

But Nayan Mongia, who also batted in Test as a makeshift opener has slammed the selectors. He said that Test cricket requires a different mindset and if Rohit fails it might affect his game in the limited-overs as well. Notably, Rohit has looked unstoppable since the World Cup in white-ball cricket.

Read More: Rohit Sharma Can Help India Chase Down Unachievable Targets In Tests – Sanjay Bangar

“Opening is a specialized job, like ‘keeping. He’s been opening in limited-overs cricket, but Test cricket requires a massive adjustment in mindset. Unless, of course, he decides to stick to what he does in limited-overs cricket – go for the ball. He must stick to his strengths, rather than change his game according to Test cricket. If he does that, it may affect his limited-overs game,” Mongia told Times of India.

Furthermore, Nayan Mongia also called out the selectors for not picking regular openers like Abhimanyu Easwaran or Priyank Panchal. The duo has scored tons for runs for in the domestic circuit and deserves a place in the Test side.

Easwaran, the newly appointed Bengal captain, has scored 4,067 runs at 49.59 while Gujarat skipper Priyank Panchal has 6186 runs at 54.14 in first-class cricket.

Read More: BCCI Probing Fixing In Tamil Nadu Premier League

“Why not give chances to those who’ve scored 1,000-800 runs in a season as an opener? The likes of Panchal and Easwaran are averaging 50-60 in domestic cricket. When are they going to get a chance? It’s demotivating for them,” Mongia concluded.