India vs South Africa: Rohit Sharma, the Test opener, needs to bat like Rohit Sharma, the ODI opener

List 1

Ajay Jadeja, Yuvraj Singh, Ashish Nehra, Suresh Raina, Mohammad Kaif, Michael Bevan, Neil Fairbrother, Shahid Afridi, Nick Knight, Russel Arnold, Chris Harris, Ajit Agarkar.

List 2
Virender Sehwag, Michael Slater, Michael Vaughan, Gundappa Viswanath, Kim Hughes, Thilan Samaraweera, Ian Botham, Dion Nash, Jeff Thompson, Matt Prior, Mohammad Asif.

Two lists. Two very different lists. List 1 features some very good cricketers who were great in ODIs but never quite hit it off in Tests. List 2 looks at cricketers who were great in Tests but pretty ordinary in ODIs. Two lists that also show that it is perfectly acceptable to be great in one format but never quite cut it in the other.

And for now, Rohit Sharma will — for most of us — make it to List 1 comfortably. Not because his Test record is abysmally bad (he averages 39.62 in 27 matches). No, no that. Instead, because most believe his Test record could have been so much better.

Against South Africa, he gets a chance to open the innings for India in Test cricket, a position which allowed him to finally find his feet in ODI cricket. The chance has been handed to him because of two main reasons. One, the rise of Hanuma Vihari. Two, the failure of the other openers to make the slot their own.

Some might reckon that he is not the perfect fit for the position given how he struggles against the moving ball. The red ball tends to move more than the white ball and for a longer period of time. The fields in Test cricket are also more aggressive, which means that more edges tend to go to hand.

Others argue that Sharma has done enough as an opener in ODIs to have figured out his own method against the new ball now and if he can indeed find a way to succeed at the Test level too, India will have a winner on their hands. He could be for Virat Kohli what Virender Sehwag was for Sourav Ganguly, a match-winner at the top of the order.

The rest of India’s batting order in Tests looks stellar now. Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane and Hanuma Vihari give a very solid look to the line-up. But the lack of a quality opening pair regularly puts pressure on the middle order during India’s away season.

Double-edged sword

But the opportunity, in home conditions, is also a double-edged sword. For if he can’t cut it at home, there is virtually no chance of him doing it on an away tour. So the pressure, even though Sharma will tell you there is none, is immense.

India, at home, are expected to dominate South Africa. But each time Sharma steps out to bat, his performance will be put under the microscope by the fans, the selectors and the team management. He will know that and he will know that he needs a big score to put some space between him and the axe.

The team management has reassured him that he will be given time to settle into the role.

“I told Rohit, way back in 2015-16, to start opening for Mumbai,” Shastri told Hindustan Times recently. “Always felt he had the X factor. It is always difficult, not easy for a No 5 or 6 to do it. But it is just a mind thing. If he gets over it, he is going to be a match-winner there as well, and we are going to give him time. We are not going to push him.”

But we have seen similar reassurances go nowhere for Rahane in the past and Sharma will know that the best antidote to the initial nervousness will be to go out and score runs.

After being promoted to open the innings in the ICC Champions Trophy 2013 alongside Shikhar Dhawan, Sharma quickly established himself as the world’s best ODI opener. Since then, he has amassed 6,621 runs from 128 innings at an average of 59.11. He has registered seven scores in excess of 150 in ODIs, three of which have been double-hundreds and has also scored four T20 International hundreds – the most by any batsman.

He certainly knows how to score the big runs and stay at the wicket for long periods of time too. But will he look to take the same ODI approach in Test cricket too or will he try and bat like a regular Test opener?

VVS Laxman, for one, believes that Sharma should stick to his guns.

“I believe the mistake that I made while opening the innings was to change my mindset, which got me a lot of success as a middle-order batsman, whether it’s batting No 3 or No 4,” the former India cricketer said in an interview to Deep Dasgupta’s Youtube channel.

Laxman added: “I also tried to change my technique. As a middle-order batsman, I always had a front press (front-foot trigger) and then went towards the ball, whereas talking to seniors and coaches, I went to back and across as I had to face Curtly Ambrose (the away series in ‘97), who would generate steep bounce from length. This huge change in approach affected my batting and I hope Rohit won’t do it. If you tweak your natural game too much, then you will not get the results as your mind gets cluttered and you tend to lose your rhythm. I can admit that my flow was affected when I opened. Rohit is a rhythm-based player and if his touch gets affected, then it will be difficult.”

Sehwag, on the other hand, chose to change little about his batting and instead of concentrating on the danger the new ball presented, he often focussed on the four-hitting opportunities that Test cricket offers early in the innings. If Sharma can do that, he will put the pressure back on the bowlers and that will allow him to continue playing his natural game.

In many ways, this is a new beginning and the butterflies will certainly be there for Sharma but at the same time, he knows that his destiny is in his own hands and that is a lot more than what can be said for many others who have played the game.

This may be the opportunity that Sharma was waiting for all along or this might be the moment that will convince him that Test cricket is not for him.

Either which way, he is the reason why everyone is looking forward to Day 1 of the first Test against South Africa and somehow in the midst of it all, Sharma needs to convince himself that this is just another game. No pressure.