Sanjay Manjrekar believes Rohit Sharma should try to replicate Sachin Tendulkar in this regard

Former Indian cricketer turned commentator and pundit Sanjay Manjrekar has come up with a very out-of-the-box kind of suggestion to India’s captain Rohit Sharma in trying to replicate the role Sachin Tendulkar used to play for the Test side in his 24 years of service for the Indian national team.

Manjrekar’s comments have come in light of India’s dramatic and shocking 28-run loss against England in the 1st of a 5-match Test series which took place at Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi stadium. It is the same Sanjay Manjrekar that had slammed the tactical thinking of Rohit Sharma on day 1 and now he is asking the latter to adopt the anchor role for India up top.

Performance-wise, Rohit Sharma had a hot and cold outing in the 1st Test and the lack of runs from his bat was among the reasons why India lost their first-ever red-ball match in the venue in a long time. In the 2nd innings while responding to England’s 1st inning total of 246, Rohit lost his wicket while trying to play a lofted shot towards the side screen off a flighted delivery from Jack Leach.

The 36-year-old while trying to match the intensity shown by Yashasvi Jaiswal, went down the track and played an uppish stroke which got towered into the sky before landing safely in the hands of English captain Ben Stokes. Rohit Sharma departed for just 24 runs after striking 3 trademark boundaries.

However, his dismissal didn’t really affect India that much as Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja, KS Bharat, and Axar Patel’s knocks helped them take a 190-run lead and post 436 on the board. In England’s 2nd innings, Rohit Sharma’s tactics too remained hot and cold as his decision of bringing in Jasprit Bumrah to reverse the old ball worked but apparently nothing worked in front of Ollie Pope, whose sole effort helped the Three Lions ask India to chase down 231 for the win.

Rohit Sharma yet again after getting to a good start, lost his wicket to another left-arm off-spinner and this time it was Tom Hartley, who eventually registered career best figures of 7/62 in what was the Englishman’s first Test match in India.

For India, it is getting very important and necessary for Rohit to get India off to flyers and Sanjay Manjrekar has asked him to go the Tendulkar way.

“You saw Yashasvi Jaiswal got 80 at a strike rate of 100. In the second innings, for no reason, the strike rate was 40. The one reason has to be that they came in to bat feeling the pressure. That is where Rohit Sharma had to do a job that Sachin Tendulkar did for many years, be that one batter to take care,” Manjrekar said.

“India once again erred on the side of too much caution. If you’ve got players like Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, or Shreyas Iyer, who project themselves as attacking players, then no matter what the situation, they’ve got to stick to that style because that is something they are more comfortable with. And if in that endeavour India lose a match, the fans also have to be understanding that they tried to play what they were good at.”

With His Back Against The Wall, Can Rohit Sharma Bring His Vintage Self In Vizag?

There are reasons to believe that Rohit Sharma might bring his A game or bring back his vintage self in the 2nd Test at Vishakhapatnam. As recent as the Afghanistan series, Rohit had departed for back-to-back ducks and then smacked 121* in the 3rd T20I and although he hasn’t gone for a duck in this series, he finds himself in a similar situation.

We all know Rohit Sharma is the type of player who can single-handedly win games for India when he’s at his best. Thus everyone will be hoping he comes out all guns blazing in the 2nd Test starting from 2nd February onwards.