Rohit Sharma fell 17 runs short of what would have been his maiden Test century overseas and that too at the hallowed Lord’s last week. During that second Test of the ongoing five-match series between India and England, opener Rohit struck 83 in the first innings.
Rohit’s opening partner KL Rahul though went on to score a century with the duo stitching a century stand.
Batting legend Sunil Gavaskar praised Rohit’s effort with the bat pointing out the ‘mental’ adjustment the Indian made to negotiate with deliveries on Day 1 when it’s hard to judge how the pitch will behave.
“In a five-day Test match, no one has an idea as to how the pitch will behave on the first day – things like whether there is life on this pitch, will the ball bounce more? For that, you need some time and the adjustment Rohit Sharma showed in the first innings, how to do it. He did it brilliantly – what shots to play and what not. Just see how many balls he left, some of them close to the off stump. This adjustment is mental and that is what Rohit accomplished," Gavaskar said on the Sony Sports.
Gavaskar says that hitting a hundred at Lord’s ‘isn’t everything’ as any such innings played for India in any part of the world is worth the same.
“And this is what gives us hope from a player. If you get a player who can guarantee score 80 runs, then in a five-Test series, he would end up with 400-450 runs. What else does a captain need? Yes, he would be disappointed not scoring a century, but getting a century at Lord’s isn’t everything," Gavaskar explained.
“You score a century at Trent Bridge, or Leeds… if you score a century for India in whichever part of the world, that is what is important. And the way he is batting, the time he has and the position in which he gets himself in, it feels as if a century is just around the corner," he added.
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