Jatin Paranjape, a former Indian cricketer and national selector, believes despite Rohit Sharma being far from his best in the 10-wicket loss to Australia in Adelaide, he is still confident of the Indian skipper performing better in the remaining three matches of the series. In his return to the number six position in Test cricket after a six-year absence, Rohit could only muster nine runs at Adelaide Oval over the two innings. A continued poor run in Adelaide means Rohit's average in his last six Tests is only 11.83.
Rohit also faced criticism as captain for not using his bowlers effectively and setting proactive fields. Travis Head's 140-run knock, headlined by his aggressive square-of-the-wicket scoring, exemplifies this; India's response was to offer open fields and only bowl four bouncers, despite his known vulnerability to them.
"I know he's had a really bad run in the last few Test innings. But I think form is temporary, and class is permanent. I have a very, very good feeling about Rohit Sharma coming good, as let's not forget that he's a Mumbai batter.
"They are known to kind of win against you when things are hard. I thought he was a bit off-colour in this Test match at Adelaide, but I'm sure that he will bounce back There's nothing wrong in his batting, but he just needs to get an hour or two under his belt on the field," said Paranjape to IANS in an exclusive conversation.
He also thinks Rohit should return to being an opener in the third Test in Brisbane, starting on December 14. "Being back in the opener's slot is something which is a comfort area for him. So I expect him to come back into the top slot to open with Jaiswal and have KL Rahul batting at five. I also thought he was a bit off with his captaincy on the first couple of days and I'm sure he will turn it around in the next three matches to come."
Paranjape, co-founder of KheloMore and a member of the BCCI Cricket Advisory Committee, praised Australian captain Pat Cummins' exceptional leadership in the hosts' victory in Adelaide.
"Over the last three-four years, he's the best captain in world cricket and he took it upon himself by picking five wickets in the second innings and bowled some pretty unplayable stuff. I did believe that after the first Test match, Cummins will kind of need to lift the Australian team which he did so. I thought he was the standout performer for them in Adelaide."
As the Border-Gavaskar Trophy heads to Brisbane tied 1-1, Paranjape predicts India will make two bowling changes: swapping Harshit Rana for Akash Deep, and replacing Ravichandran Ashwin with Ravindra Jadeja.
"Bumrah, Akash and Siraj will be a good kind of partnership for this next Test match because the ball will seam in the game at The Gabba. I also feel we might leave Ashwin and play Jadeja because it gives them more space with the bat at number seven or eight. The series is going to be super exciting from now, as it's going to go down to the wire and I expect India to bounce back."
Having served on the selection committee for India's 2-1 Border-Gavaskar triumph in Australia in 2018/19, Paranjape concluded by saying the lack of pink-ball experience impacted India, but he remains unconvinced by the concept of day-night Tests.
'The pink ball is very difficult to see under lights and the seam of the pink ball is black in colour. On the whole, the seam and theme of the ball is extremely difficult to see. If you're playing just one or two Test matches a year or maybe just one Test match a year or one Test match every two years, it becomes extremely difficult for any player to play against pink ball.
"But for me I fail to see the point of pink ball cricket, because when you're playing for the World Test Championship, you need to keep all the rules consistent. But then that's what the ICC has decided, so I'm sure they have they have more gravitas than me but I think playing the pink ball Tests inherently is hard to see."
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