The Indian captain spoke about his home-and-away split and the debate circulating on turning pitches prepared by the hosts in the WTC era.
Rohit Sharma may have contributed massively to India’s success on his last trips to England and Australia but the experienced opener continues to face questions on his adaptability in Test matches across conditions with negative perceptions based on his home and away record.
After facing major strife as an irregularly appearing middle-order batter for the first five years of his Test career, Rohit has been a revelation at the top. Since being asked to open under the previous India regime led by coach Ravi Shastri and skipper Virat Kohli, he is averaging a mighty impressive 53.64 across 25 Tests.
Rohit was the top run-getter of the 2021 series played in England and made a valiant contribution to the following Test assignment and success in Australia. But an overall away average of 34.51, with a further slip to 31.96 in the ‘SENA’ countries has been a point of attention for the critics.
Speaking about it in an interview with PTI, the 36-year-old reminded the naysayers how difficult it has also become to bat in India. Rohit tried to quash the debate by highlighting the nature of pitches used for Tests in India over the past 2-3 years, where the World Test Championship (WTC) points have encouraged the team to dish out dry, turning pitches for their spinners.
“Look at my recent Test innings in India. I can tell you that batting in India is much more difficult now than batting overseas, especially in the last 2-3 years. The pitches that we have played on, it is more challenging than overseas. That’s why we haven’t spoken about runs and averages of batting unit. All of us agreed that we want to play on challenging pitches,” Rohit said.
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Rohit emphasized on the need for India to keep in the mind the larger context of the WTC – having now made two consecutive finals but losing the marquee final – before preparing surfaces for visiting sides.
“I don’t want to worry about what kind of averages we finish with,” the skipper said. “That is how I think but different players will have different thought processes, and I don’t want to change that. I am going to play on pitches that suit our bowlers.”
