‘Gambhir-Sehwag pair was dismantled to allow Sachin’: Manjrekar’s painful reminder after Rohit fails on return as opener
Former India batter Sanjay Manjrekar’s mind harked back to one of Indian cricket’s most infamous chapters after Rohit Sharma fell cheaply on his return as an opener during the 4th Test against Australia at the MCG.
Rohit, the Indian captain, was back opening the innings, but his stay at the crease was short-lived. More importantly, the manner of Rohit’s dismissal is what raised more eyebrows than anything else – a half-hearted pull shot that he mistimed to give Cummins the wicket.
However, that disrupted the pair of Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul – the two guys who put on a record double-century partnership in the series opener at Perth. Although the Rahul-Jaiswal pair couldn’t get the big partnership going in either Adelaide or Brisbane, their combination at the top was a breath of fresh air, blending experience and youth. This prompted Manjrekar to recall 2012, Sachin Tendulkar’s last Test tour of Australia.
Tendulkar, by then, had racked up 99 international centuries, but his search for the 100th was proving to be excruciatingly long. Tendulkar couldn’t do it in the four Tests against England, and although he scored a couple of fifties in Melbourne and Sydney, the triple-digit score simply eluded him. This, as Manjrekar pointed out, had plenty of similarities with the Rohit’s current situation.
“When Sachin Tendulkar was here for his final Test series in Australia, and didn’t get that century, that elusive 100th hundred, he stayed back and wanted to play the tri-series. The 50-overs tri-series had Sri Lanka as the third team. Gambhir and Sehwag had a great run as openers and that opening pair was dismantled to allow Tendulkar to play in that position. In fact, one of them was rested every game to have Tendulkar opening for India,” Manjrekar said while commenting during Day 2 of the Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Hanuma Vihari’s suggestion
He made another interesting point, which Hanuma Vihari, hero of the drawn SCG Test during the 2020/21 Border-Gavaskar Trophy, made. With scores of 3, 6, and 10, Rohit struggled big-time batting at No. 6 for India. But with Rahul showing great fortitude, how much sense would it have made to thrust him back into the middle order? Clearly, none. Hence, with Shubman Gill dropped, this was the ideal scenario. But there was one more, that could have benefitted all three – Rohit, Rahul and Jaiswal, revealed Manjrekar.
“Hanuma Vihari made a suggestion that could have made everyone happy. You had Rohit Sharma, you want him to open… fine. He opens, his suggestion was Yashasvi Jaiswal bats at No. 3 only because he’s had so many problems with the new ball… the first couple of balls that he has faced from Mitchell Starc, so you keep him away from that danger, and then you have KL Rahul continuing to open the innings. So that was a better compromise I think but that’s all gone now,” he said.