Was Contemplating About Promoting Rohit Sharma To Open In Tests Since 2015: Ravi Shastri

Rohit Sharma might have opened in Tests for the first time in his career just a couple of months ago but India head coach Ravi Shastri was contemplating about that since 2015. In a recent interview, Ravi Shastri insisted that he always knew that the right-handed batsman was meant to open the batting in the longest format of the game.

The Mumbai batsman, who started his Test career with two back-to-back centuries in 2013, could not really get going in Tests. Inconsistency, injuries and most recently lack of chances never allowed him to become a regular member of the playing eleven. However, the right-hander now looks set to get a longer rope in Tests.

India finally tried him out as an opener in Tests and the result was stunning. Rohit Sharma hit the ground running by scoring two centuries in his very first Test as an opener in the three-match series against South Africa. He failed to score big in the second Test but made amends for it by scoring a career-best 212 in the third game.

Ravi Shastri spotted Test cricketer in Rohit early:

Ravi Shastri revealed that the idea of getting Rohit Sharma to open the batting in Test cricket was on his mind since 2015. The former India allrounder said that he was always confident of Rohit’s capabilities as a Test cricketer.

“I always believed, he was never meant to play the waiting game. Having watched him, right from his very first match, it always crossed my mind. I would have thought my job is incomplete, I would not have rated myself as a coach,” Ravi Shastri told India Today.

“What I understood watching and seeing, that this guy should not be waiting to bat. Why is he successful in the one-day game? Because he goes and takes the charge. The bowler is not set, he is not set, so they start afresh. So, if he gets away, he has the ammunition to attack,” Shastri added.

He further revealed that he had asked Rohit to start opening the innings for Mumbai in order to get a taste of what it is like to open in red-ball cricket.

“It was 2015 when I told him (Rohit) that he should be opening for Mumbai, that he should be opening on a regular basis when he is not playing for India just to get the feel. And it was all in the mind. People ask me how you went from 10 to 1, it is in the mind. It is first relishing the challenge, accepting the fact that you could be out the first ball, because those conditions are the difficult. So relish the challenge,” said Ravi Shastri.

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