India captain Rohit Sharma is going through a form slump in Tests, which has now translated to the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-2025. It was the same old story for Rohit Sharma on Day 4 of the third Test between India and Australia as he crashed after scoring just 10 runs to leave India in a precarious situation.
Rohit Sharma's lean patch continues
Meanwhile, former India's star wicketkeeper-batter Dinesh Karthik assessed Rohit's batting struggles and came up with an advice for the Hitman. After notching scores of 6 and 3 in the second Test against Australia in Adelaide, Rohit's disappointing performance continued at the Gabba as he returned to the hut after edging a catch to Alex Carey of Pat Cummins to extend his rut.
Karthik, during his analysis on Cricbuzz, attributed Rohit's struggles to a lack of confidence, which has led to technical issues in his batting. He suggested that Rohit would be disappointed with his recent performances and would need to address these technical concerns to regain his form.
"I think Rohit will be very disappointed in himself. Even today you could see that he played slightly in front. With Rohit, he has never been someone who lunges forward for the ball but what he does do is play almost close to his front pad. But here you can see that he has gone ahead and what does that tell you? That his form is not as good as he would like it to be. now one thing that he has done well is that attack himself out of pressure in all formats. We all clapped that attacking cricket, especially in white-ball where he was a pioneer of this approach," Dinesh Karthik said on Cricbuzz.
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Dinesh Karthik feels Rohit Sharma is low on confidence
Karthik also advised Rohit to shift his focus from his aggressive white-ball style and prioritise building longer innings in Test cricket. He wants Rohit to extend his stay at the crease and play patiently. With over a decade and a half of international experience since his debut in 2007, Karthik believes that Rohit has the ability to overcome his batting struggle and regain his form.
"I think it is time for him to show the other way around, to guts it out. Make sure that he is there, avoid shots that is going to be dangerous on that pitch and back his technique. Rohit Sharma has played a decade and a half of international cricket (17 years), if you are telling that his technique is not water-tight, I will be very surprised. He has got areas that he is vulnerable in, but everybody has that, he needs to guts it out, fight it out. I am not sure if he believes in it right now, but that could be his confidence. But if he puts his mind to it, this question can be answered. Because what India needs, is a mentally tough Rohit Sharma," Karthik signed off.
Talking about the mathc, India managed to avoid a follow-on on Day 4 of the third Test against Australia at the Gabba, Brisbane. A crucial 39-run partnership between Jasprit Bumrah and Akash Deep for the tenth wicket helped India reach 252/9 in their first innings. With India still needing 32 runs to avoid the follow-on after the fall of the ninth wicket, Bumrah and Deep combined to stitch a valuable partnership after KL Rahul (84) and Ravindra Jadeja (77) batting exploits.
