Being Rohit Sharma is not easy. How much ever you look at ease while batting at the crease in the blue, life has been tough and unfair when it comes to the white flannels.
Being gifted with talent, time and grace, Sharma should have walked up to the pinnacle of red ball cricket similar to what he has achieved in the One Day Internationals.
But, blame the destiny, lack of temperament or anything else, Sharma, who made his Test debut in 2013, has failed to lived up to his potential in this format, which is widely regarded the toughest form of the game.
For a batsman who created his own niche and ventured into a new territory where no one has gone before, not even the great Sachin Tendulkar, in 50-overs cricket, Sharma became the only batsman to have three double hundreds, the highest individual score of 264, the first to have five centuries in a single World Cup. Not just that, he also most centuries (4) in Twenty20 Internationals. Besides, he shares with Tendulkar the record for most centuries (6) in the quadrennial show piece.
His career in Tests, though, has been completely the opposite.
While the destiny may have given him everything that the batsmen all over the world envy him for, Sharma also has a lot of luck on his side when it comes to making the Indian Test team and continues to remain in the scheme of things in the long format.
It was no surprise to see the Mumbaikar's name in the 16-member Test team for the tour of the West Indies. It would be amusing as well if his name was missing, thanks to his magnificent form in the recent World Cup.
Interestingly, like many others Sharma doesn't need to go back and perform in first-class to return to the Test fold, rather his ODI performances are enough to guarantee him a berth.
The 32-year-old should know that. And with time running out for him, Sharma will be keen to prove himself here too.
It's not that he doesn't know and is desperate to replicate his ODI form in Tests. Ironically, last year his desperation was out in the open when he offered the team a chance for him to open the innings in Tests too like he successfully did in limited overs.
"I have never been offered (to open the innings in Tests), yet but I am open to anything as in whatever the team management wants. I never thought I will be an opener in ODIs when I started playing or when I was playing for India. But it happened along the way, so I (want to) keep my options open. No option is shut for me, so if the opportunity comes, I will take it," Sharma had said.
"I want to be part of the (Test) team, but it is not in my hands. I have to wait for the opportunity, whenever it comes. I have to be ready for it. To be ready, I am doing everything, training, doing as much as possible to give myself the best chance when the opportunity comes there," he added.
Post this, Sharma was given a chance on the tour of Australia, where conditions which suits his game perfectly, but he managed to notch up just one half-century — 63 in the four innings, leaving his followers disappointed.
Now that he has got another opportunity, Sharma will look to seal the deal. May be not as an opener, but at No. 6 against a team where he got record back-to-back centuries in two matches in his debut Test series.
As they say, opportunities don't knock at your door every time, but for Rohit Sharma it does. And, he will only be keen to make it count once again.
N Zone
4 No. of hundreds Rohit Sharma has scored in T20 internationals, the most by any batsman