Rohit Sharma's masterful century against England shows a batsman on track to be elite in...

[ASFN Admin]

In 2019, Rohit Sharma’s status as one of the pre-eminent limited-overs players of his day was long assured. He had more than 30 limited-overs international centuries. He was the proud owner of the highest ever score in one-day international cricket - a still absurd 264 - and hit the small matter of five centuries in the 2019 World Cup. He was also the captain of Mumbai Indians, the Indian Premier League’s most successful franchise. There was just one area of the sport in which Sharma was shunned from the top table: Test cricket. There had been no hint of the troubles to come when Sharma breezed into Test cricket with a regal 177 on debut, and then followed it up with an undefeated 111 in his second innings. But Test cricket is seldom more facile than it was for Sharma in these games. He had the triple advantages of batting at six, batting at home and facing an enfeebled West Indies attack. Sharma was reminded of these advantages as soon as he ventured outside India. On South Africa’s spicy wickets against a ferocious home attack, Sharma made just 45 runs in four innings. And so the template for his Test career was set: often imperious at home, but all too fallible away. All of this explained why, in 2019, Sharma was ranked the number two ODI batsman in the world and yet was locked out of the Test side. He could scarcely complain: an average of 85.4 at home, aided by routinely coming in with India already dominant, fell to just 26.3 away. Ravi Shastri, India’s head coach, had been trying to reprise his role as an ODI opener in domestic first-class cricket since 2015. But Sharma’s schedule did not allow him the chance: his last domestic first-class game was in 2016. After opening in just three first-class innings, and none for the previous seven years, Sharma was entrusted to open against South Africa in 2019. “It was my last chance,” Sharma later said.

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