Rohit backs out-of-sorts Rahul

KL Rahul hasn’t scored a half-century since the beginning of 2022. Yes, not even a fifty in 11 innings. And yet, the Indian opener has continued to find favour with the team management.

There’s the other matter that only Virat Kohli has done worse than him, but Rohit Sharma defended the former captain by virtue of backing the current vice-captain.

“Of late, there have been talks about his batting, but for us, we always look at the potential of every individual, not just KL,” he said in the wake of India’s six-wicket win over Australia here on Sunday.

“I was asked in the past about a lot of players, but if the guy has potential, he will get that extended run. Anyone with potential will get an extended run.”

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Rohit cited Rahul’s centuries at Lord’s (129) against England and the 123 against South Africa to make his case, but he did insinuate that those who are failing at home will need to find better methods to score runs.

Rahul’s last three innings have yielded 38 runs. Kohli has scored 76 runs since the start of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

“When you’re playing on pitches like this you need to find your methods of scoring runs,” he explained. “Different individuals are part of this team and they will have different ways of scoring runs. Finding your own method is important.”

While Indian batters found it almost as hard as the Australians to tackle spin in New Delhi on a pitch which wasn’t nearly as effervescent as the strip in Nagpur in the opener, the likes of R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Axar - ‘the lower-order’ - put up fine performances.

Jadeja, especially, has been brilliant with 17 wickets, including a couple of fifers, and 96 runs in two innings. This after returning from a five-month break due to an ACL reconstructive surgery.

“He has been brilliant. Comebacks are not easy, but the confidence that guy has in his ability is massive,” said Rohit. "There were times when he was put under pressure in this Test, but there were no signs of panic from him. He just kept relying on what he’s best at.”

Australia raced to 61 for 1 on the back of a counterattacking Travis Head to extend their advantage in the Test by 62 runs. India looked out of sorts during the blitz, but were an entirely different unit on Sunday, bowling them out for 113.

“I could see that we were panicking a bit, trying to change fields way too many times,” noted Rohit. “In the morning, we told the three spinners to keep it calm and that we don’t need to change fields as often as we did last. I could sense that they (Australia) wanted to play that (aggressive) way. I knew that you could not play like that on that wicket, you can’t just come out and play shots, and sweeps are not a good option either.”

As for the long tail, Rohit said: “Yeah, it’s a big plus to have your batting go as deep as possible. It’s something we have been trying to get for so many years. For years, we have wanted batting depth. Luckily, in these three guys, we have that. We’re lucky because they’re damn good bowlers but they can bat as well. Quite well actually.”