It is not difficult to gauge that Indian skipper and opener Rohit Sharma did not have the best of outings in the first Test against South Africa. The swashbuckling batter was spellbound by South Africa’s Kagiso Rabada in both innings as the pacer picked off at Rohit with ease, dismissing the skipper for 5 runs and a duck respectively in consecutive innings.
But, Rohit had a tough couple of days as a skipper as well, as India’s bowling attack just could not break through the defense of one Dean Elgar. Elgar batted his way to a magnificent 185 runs, and along with him joined Marco Jansen, who smacked the Indian bowlers all over, amassing a career-best 84* as SA piled on 408 runs.
Eentually, India crumbled despite an inspired batting performance from talisman batter Virat Kohli, who took on the Protean bowlers all by himself, in a last-ditch effort to save India’s innings. But alas, India were bowled out for a meagre 131, losing the match by an innings and 32 runs to a dominant South African side that had their number at all times throughout their encounter.
On the back of the defeat, many questions were raised regarding India and especially skipper Rohit Sharma’s inefficient batting and leadership qualities through the ordeal.
One person in particular who was critical of Rohit’s batting and captaincy was former Indian cricketer Subramaniam Badrinath, who said that Virat Kohli should be the captain of the Indian Test side still.
“Kohli has a great record as a test leader. He has scored more than 5000 runs with an average of 52 as a captain. He has 40 wins and 17 losses in 68 tests. He led us to a tremendous victory in the Australia series. He has the most wins as Test captain after Graeme Smith, Ricky Ponting and Steve Waugh,” Subramaniam Badrinath said on his YouTube channel.
Kohli, who was highly successful as skipper, led India to a series win in Australia as a captain and numerous memorable Test and series wins in England, South Africa, West Indies and Sri Lanka, with multiple game-winning performances in countless run-chases. Under his leadership, India was the number-one Test team for multiple years in a row.
And this exactly is where Rohit falters. Rohit, despite being a successful captain and a Test batter himself, has a poor record against SENA (South Africa, England, New Zealand, Australia), against whom Rohit only possess a meagre average of 30.30 runs.
“Why is he (Virat) not the captain of the Test team? I want to raise this valid question. He is a better test batter. There is no comparison between Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma. He is a big player in terms of Test cricket. He has scored runs everywhere. Why is he not leading and a weaker player? As far as I am concerned, a weaker player who is not yet proven as an opener. He has been in and out. We can consider all of that. But I think Rohit Sharma has not proven himself as an opener outside India. Why is he there?” Badrinath exclaimed.
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