Rohit Sharma is giving the toughest test of his/her career, his/her teammates are not supporting him/her and Team India is paying the price.

From Melbourne Cricket Ground. When the first innings of Indian batting started on the second day of the fourth Test against Australia, there was excessive pressure on the top order. Especially on captain Rohit Sharma, for whom the current phase seems to be no less than the toughest test of his/her career. If ever a statistic can tell the story of a batsman’s struggle in just a few words, then perhaps Australia’s bowling captain Pat Cummins has scored more runs than the Indian captain during this Border-Gavaskar series.

If it was only a matter of Rohit’s form, then perhaps Team India’s game would not have been affected much because often when one batsman is going through a difficult challenge, the other batsmen together cover his/her shortcomings temporarily. But, leaving aside the second innings of Perth Test, the bat of fellow opener Yashasvi Jaiswal also seems to be yearning for a big innings. It is a matter of satisfaction that in Melbourne this young batsman from Mumbai has again regained his/her Perth rhythm and aggression and his/her half-century testifies to this.

Indian batsmen are losing wickets on bad shots.
KL Rahul, who perhaps should not have been removed from the role of opener, batted at number three in the style of his/her idol Rahul Dravid. Like KL Dravid, he/she is the ultimate teamman and never complains about why he/she is moved up and down the batting order despite playing well. Rahul was out on a very beautiful ball from Cummins in Melbourne, but in this series, most of the batsmen have been out more due to bad shots rather than good balls.

Pressure is increasing on Shubman Gill also
Not only this, Shubman Gill, who did not get a chance to play in this match, was seen practicing batting in the nets during the middle test. Gill knows that when he/she struggled as an opener, Jaiswal was tried on the West Indies tour in 2023 and since then till now the Mumbai batsman has made everyone his/her admirer. Gill knows that since the inning of 91 runs he/she played in the 2021 Gabba Test, he/she has not scored a half-century outside Asia and these figures cannot at all be the figures of a very talented batsman like him/her.

More worried about Rishabh’s form than Rohit-Gil
If there is one batsman more worried about his/her form than Rohit and Gill, it is Rishabh Pant. This Delhi batsman, in his/her very short Test career, has registered himself as the greatest wicketkeeper-batsman in Indian history, beating legends like Mahendra Singh Dhoni. The biggest reason for this is the performance of his/her bat on two consecutive Australian tours. Like Rohit and Kohli, the Australian team has also done tremendous homework for Pant and to a great extent, they have been successful in silencing them in the series. It is true that the biggest reason for Pant not playing big innings or showing his/her familiar aggressive style is that he/she faces bowlers like Cummins and Starc only in front of the new ball. On the last two tours, whenever Pant came to bat, Cheteshwar Pujara used to blunt the edge of the new ball with his/her bat. Due to the continuous failure of the top order, Pant has also needed to bring a sense of responsibility like a senior player in his/her game, due to which his/her natural independence has been significantly affected.

Nitish’s selection defensive approach
This is the reason why batting all-rounders like Nitish Reddy and Washington Sundar got a place in the team to keep the batting order strong or rather to avoid it falling apart. This strategy is perfect for ODI cricket or T20 but Test cricket is a ruthless format. he/she always demands from the players that either with the ball or with the bat alone, they should be able to contribute so much that the path to victory becomes easier for their team. Former Test player Sanjay Manjrekar had said before the match that playing Reddy for the fourth consecutive Test reflects India’s defensive approach. And history is witness that teams from defensive point of view have not won series in Australia. Talking about Team India’s last two series wins, they were played with a very aggressive mind set but the strange thing is that despite having a 1-0 lead in this series, Australia was not attacked in the manner that was required.

Siraj’s form is increasing the pressure on Bumrah
It can definitely be argued that apart from the struggles of the batsmen, the over-reliance on Jasprit Bumrah in bowling has also troubled the team a lot. Akashdeep and Harshit Rana have bowled impressive spells as the third seamer, even if their wickets do not reflect this. But, Mohammed Siraj, who played an important role in the victory by bowling brilliantly in the last two series, suddenly losing his/her rhythm can be a big problem for any captain-coach. Statistically, Siraj has a total of 13 wickets after the first innings of the Melbourne Test, but the Hyderabad bowler has not been able to live up to the expectations of the kind of brilliant play that is expected from an experienced bowler of 35 Tests. Especially, in the absence of a very experienced bowler like Mohammed Shami, a better game was expected from Siraj.

Australia has the upper hand in Melbourne
Despite all the criticism, it can definitely be said that the series is still tied at 1-1. If any one team can become a contender for series victory on the fifth day of Melbourne, then only the hosts will not think so. Just as success is not permanent, struggle is also not permanent and this is the basic nature of cricket. It can only be hoped that if the veteran batsmen and bowlers find their rhythm in the last ten days of the tour, then they can easily forget the stories of failure in the first six weeks of the tour.

tag: Border Gavaskar Trophy, india vs australia, Rohit Sharma, team india