Rohit Sharma to bat in middle-order in second Test against Australia?

India’s regular Test captain and opener Rohit Sharma not batting in the top-three in the pink ball warm-up game against Prime Minister’s XI in Canberra has raised quite a few eyebrows.

The question now arises: Will Rohit bat in the middle order in the second Test, which will be played with a pink ball in Adelaide from December 6?

The 37-year-old was on paternity leave and missed the opening Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Perth, which India won by a massive margin of 295 runs. In his absence, Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul opened the innings and did an incredible job, especially in the second innings. 

The two put on a match-winning opening stand of 201 in India’s second innings and as a result, the management could very well ask Rohit to play in the middle-order in the second Test.

Jaiswal got out for a duck in the first innings but responded with a stunning knock of 161 in the second essay. Meanwhile, Rahul looked comfortable in both innings, registering scores of 26 off 74 and 77 off 176. Hence, it would be a crime to ask Rahul to change his batting position once again.

The Indian team management gave a strong hint on the matter when Rahul and Jaiswal walked out to open the innings in the warm-up game against the Prime Minister’s XI despite Rohit being available. 

The two put on 75 runs and even countered Scott Boland very well. The seamer is likely to feature in Australia’s XI in the second Test after Josh Hazlewood was ruled out due to an injury. 

Even when Jaiswal got out to Charlie Anderson, Shubman Gill, who also missed the first Test due to an injury, walked out to bat at No.3. 

Rahul scored 27 off 44 before retiring out and that’s when Rohit came out to bat at No.4. The Indian captain, however, could only manage three runs before becoming Anderson’s second victim.

Now that Gill and Rohit are available, Devdutt Padikkal and Dhruv Jurel will likely miss out. Gill will replace Padikkal at No.3, but there’s a huge question mark over Rohit’s position. 

The right-hander could very well bat at No. 5 or 6, something he has done on numerous occasions in the past. Rohit has scored 1,474 runs in 41 innings at an average of 43.35 in those two positions, including three tons and nine fifties. However, he last batted in one of those two positions in 2018, coincidentally in Australia.

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