Every time India captain Rohit Sharma bats in the manner he batted in the first innings of the ongoing first Test match of Australia’s tour of India 2023 in Nagpur, one has no option than no deeply ponder about three “What if” situations.
Advertisement
What if Rohit Sharma had made his Test debut when it was originally meant to happen in 2010?
What if Rohit Sharma had opened the batting since the start of his Test career?
What is Rohit Sharma hadn’t suffered frequent injuries?
It comes across as a major surprise that 35-year old Sharma is playing only his 46th Test match at the moment. For someone who has been around in international cricket for over half-a-decade now, him yet to play 50 Tests is difficult to believe at first. It is a combination of the three aforementioned factors which forms a major reason behind Sharma’s comparatively less number of Test matches.
That being said, Sharma doesn’t miss a chance to not only impress one and all but also impact the match in a major way whenever he plays Test cricket nowadays. The right-handed batter’s second Test century at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium today was a testament to the same.
Although the pitch didn’t turn or open up as badly as a large segment of the Australian media had expected it to, it was still difficult enough to not let the first 17 batters to bat in the match to score a half-century (barring Sharma, of course).
Rohit Sharma best score in Test cricket
Sharma, who scored 120 (212) with the help of 15 fours and two sixes before being dismissed by counterpart Pat Cummins, scored his ninth Test century on Friday.
Having said that, readers must note that it wasn’t his highest score in this format by some margin. Known to score daddy hundreds in Test cricket, Sharma’s career-best Test performance had come against South Africa in Ranchi over three years ago.
Sharma, who had scored 212 (255) at a strike rate of 83.13 in his third Test as an opener after scoring a century in his first-ever innings in the same batting position back then, has crossed the 150-run mark four times in Test cricket.
