The grapes that turned sour: The dilemma behind Rohit Sharma’s form overseas

While India dominated the larger part of the 2nd Test match against New Zealand at Basin Reserve until a Brendon McCullum denied them their 1st win overseas in a very long time. In contrast, Rohit Sharma’s relationship with runs is again impeded by the fast pitches there. While there is no questioning his ability to destroy the opponent in any format while playing in sub-continent conditions, his inconsistent show with the bat outside India is alarming. Rohit Sharma made his ODI debut in 2007 and his sporadic patches of good form were the reasons for his unpredictability in the team.

The pitches in India were oblivion of the performance of Rohit Sharma outside India and vice-versa, which gave rise to an argument between the two.

INDIA (IN): Rohit Sharma has a knack to score runs and he delivers each time that he comes out to bat. He is currently one of the best batsmen in the world.

OUTSIDE INDIA (OUT): Who is Rohit Sharma?

IN: Excuse me?

OUT: I have a very short-lived memory, I remember people who perform and erase the others from my mind.

IN: But how can you not know Rohit Sharma? He only recently amassed the highest number of runs by an individual in a bilateral series against Australia and also has an ODI double century.

OUT: I thought only I believe in opening my argument with a joke, I am certainly not alone.

IN: Joke? What kind of a pitch makes fun of a great batsman? He scored a century on his Test debut and then followed it up with another – A true gem for India.

OUT:  I really want to believe you but he has been playing ODIs on me for a very long time and has only 1 hundred against his name. He started playing Test matches on me in December 2013 in South Africa. In the 7 innings that he has played in Tests he averages only 19 and for the 6+ years that he has been playing ODIs here, his average is a mere 27. How are these traits of a great batsman?

IN: This is a complete shock for me and I would refrain myself from believing it. I have seen him go berserk on the opponents many times. His excellent stroke play, his impeccable timing, his grace in every shot has won India many matches and I am sure he is doing the same on pitches like you.

OUT: On pitches like me the opponents strangle him down, there is minimal stroke play and the timings on the edge of the bat are surely impeccable. I heard the pitches from England talk about his good batting during the Champions trophy but during that time of the year, the genre of the English pitches are different from mine. They get a bit easy to bat on.

IN: I still don’t believe you, you told me the same thing about Raina before, and do you think these guys would have problems playing there?

OUT:I don’t think – I know that they face problems plain here and I really like to show-off players who perform well but Rohit is far away from that list.

This hypothetical conversation between two different types of pitches was to give you a brief idea about the reason Rohit Sharma is being made the center of attention. As a batsman, he has a dual personality. One is activated when he plays in India and does not allow the critique graphs go negative while the other one gets into action outside India where he looks clueless to the swinging deliveries.

His inconsistency was the reason for his failure to secure a permanent spot in the squad. It was after last year’s IPL that he was selected into the team and was introduced as an opener in the Champions Trophy from where he never looked back. His performance led to his Test debut but most of his big scores were in India. The alarming situation arrived when he failed abroad and was even out at 0 in the 1st innings of the 2nd Test.

Rohit Sharma is an exceptional talent but his talent will last long only after he finds a solution to the fast swinging deliveries. The grapes which were cultivated last year in India by Rohit are turning sour as he fails to deliver after each innings. With the Asia cup lined up next at Bangladesh, Rohit’s scintillating form will return.