Former Indian national cricket team opening batsman Aakash Chopra has exposed Test captain Rohit Sharma’s disastrous records since he took over the top job in Indian cricket.
Aakash Chopra opined that Rohit Sharma’s current form in Test cricket is definitely a big concern for the Indian team and shared his poor statistics as a batsman.
Rohit Sharma is going through a bad patch
Indian national cricket team captain Rohit Sharma has been absolutely terrible with the bat in the last four Test matches against Bangladesh and New Zealand at home.
He has had all sorts of problems against spinners and pacers and his poor performance with the bat even led to Team India facing a shocking defeat in the home Test series against the Black Caps.
In the two Test matches against Bangladesh in Chennai and Kanpur, Rohit Sharma recorded scores of 6, 5, 23 and 8. When the action moved to Bengaluru and Pune for the matches against New Zealand, Rohit Sharma’s poor form continued and finished with scores of 2, 52, 0 and 8.
The Indian captain must ensure that he fires the bat in the Wankhede Test against New Zealand, starting on November 1, as he will need some runs under his belt as India heads to Australia for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25.
The average of 35 as captain in 20 matches, that doesn’t sit well with me personally – Rohit Sharma
Speaking on his official YouTube channel, Aakash Chopra highlighted Rohit Sharma’s lack of scoring in his last 8 Test innings.
He went on to analyze the batting records of the Indian captains, who have led the team in at least 20 Tests. Aakash Chopra mentioned that Rohit averages 35 in his tenure as Test captain, which is one of the worst in the history of cricket. He elaborated:
“In the last two Test series so far, he has only scored fifty in eight innings, the same as Virat Kohli. So obviously there will be questions. However, how are his numbers if we talk about Indian Test captains who Have they been captains in at least 20 games in the last 50 years?
“Virat Kohli tops that list, with an average of 54 in 68 matches. Sachin Tendulkar had an average of 51 in 25 matches, Sunil Gavaskar had an average of 50 in 47 matches, Rahul Dravid had an average of 44 in 25 matches, and Mohammad Azharuddin averaged 43 in 47 matches.
“MS Dhoni had an average of 40 in 60 matches and Sourav Ganguly had an average of 37 in 49 matches. Dada had only five centuries in 49 matches and Rohit Sharma is below him. He has scored 1,194 runs at an average of 35 in 20 The average of 35 as captain in 20 games does not sit well with me personally.”
So this hurts us a little because Rohit has a slightly mediocre average if we look at 19 home games since 2020 – Aakash Chopra
Aakash Chopra further spoke about the home record of Indian batsmen in Test cricket. He said that Rohit Sharma’s ‘bad’ average of 36.9 is hurting him a lot. The cricketer-turned-commentator explained:
“I also saw the statistics of Indian batsmen at home since 2020. Rohit Sharma has scored 1,181 runs but the average is 36.9. Shubman Gill has an average of 41. Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rishabh Pant are the only two shining stars. Jaiswal has scored 1,056 runs at an average of 66 in nine games.
“Rishabh Pant has scored 753 runs at an average of 50. Apart from both of them, Rohit has 36 and Virat Kohli has 32. So this hurts us a little because Rohit has a slightly mediocre average if we look at 19 home games since 2020. “Actually, it’s not good enough.”