Rohit Sharma has been wrong with his decisions on numerous occasions and Australia have now gotten too far ahead of the game.
Rohit Sharma’s captaincy was once again in the spotlight on the second day of the Adelaide Test as Australia took the game. His tactics were questionable, even to the point of being disconcerting, particularly with his bowling changes and fielding placements.
Not addressing the pitchers’ line of scrimmage with right field locations was a glaring error on the second day of the test: More often than not, there was no one at short midwicket when the lines were straighter, allowing Australian batsmen to play in that area. It was still early in the phase and the captain could have provided that extra protection by keeping a defender close to the receiver position.
Later, the field immediately opened up for Travis Head and other batsmen, allowing them to take easy singles. Sure, Head is an aggressive batsman and can play big shots, but he has a weakness in off-stump deliveries early in the innings as his feet don’t move much.
That’s where Rohit could have been more attacking and put more defenders in close to put more pressure on the new batsman. Remember when Marnus Labuschagne had just come out and Mitchell Marsh was new to the crease?
Marsh can often struggle to spin, especially early in the innings, and Ashwin was in the attack. However, Rohit put the fielders on the midwicket and long-on boundaries to allow Marsh to take easy singles and calm him down.
He then removed the first strip and expanded a little towards the second, leaving the area completely empty. To make matters worse, Travis Head scored one straight at first slip, and there was no one there to catch him, with another chance missed.
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Even for a new batsman, Alex Carey, Rohit had a length runner, allowing him to take easy singles and get out of the blocks early in the innings. All this happened in the middle as Australia took calculating risks to get boundaries and combined them with singles and doubles to weave the innings.
Coming to the bowling changes, Bumrah only bowled four overs in the first period and did not return for the second period in the first session. Earlier on the first day, he had delayed Ravichandran Ashwin’s entry and launched him quite late into the attack.
Ashwin’s success during the last day-night Test came when the ball was slightly new and Rohit could have tried a quick spell under the lights yesterday. Instead, Rohit took it to 32 and only gave one when the lights were on.
Nitish Kumar Reddy took a wicket out of nowhere in his second over of a new spell, dismissing Marnus Labuschagne. Rohit didn’t give it another thought and changed it immediately.
Maybe he wanted to attack, but he should have done it with aggressive fields. Reddy surely deserves more bowling exposure as the pink ball moves relatively more and he can swing the ball.
But Reddy only bowled six overs, while the main pacers did the heavy lifting. There were certain times where it could have been used for a quick spell.
During the second session, Rohit continued to bowl Harshit Rana even though he conceded too many runs and boundaries almost everywhere. He was given an extended spell despite not getting the desired results when India could have brought in Mohammed Siraj who played well in this game.
Their tactics were not proactive when India was on the field, which has been a common trend. They have been wrong with their decisions on numerous occasions, and Australia are too far ahead in the game now for India to mount a strong counter-attack.
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