Former India player turned veteran commentator Aakash Chopra has credited Virat Kohli and Ravi Shastri for reviving Rohit Sharma’s Test career by making him the opener of the Indian team. He added that Kohli and Shastri replicated the decision taken by MS Dhoni and Duncan Fletcher in the Test format in 2013. Notably, Rohit recently announced his retirement from Tests as well.
In a video shared on his YouTube channel ‘Aakash Chopra,’ he said, “He started his career with a century. It was a match against the West Indies at the Eden Gardens. Then we went to the Wankhede Stadium and he scored a hundred there as well. The start of his career was like a rocket being launched. When you start like that, you expect everything to go fine.”
However, it didn’t unfold like that at all. He was in and out, sometimes due to fitness and questions on his form on other occasions. It seemed at one stage that Rohit was very talented and was a white-ball superstar, but he was unable to understand the template of Tests. It came down to now or never. Virat Kohli and Ravi Shastri did what MS Dhoni and Duncan Fletcher had thought in 2013,” he further added.
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He also highlighted that Rohit Sharma grabbed the chance with both hands and played beautifully.
“They said they would give him one final chance and see where he goes. I remember him scoring a century while playing with Mayank Agarwal in that match, and then he kept scoring hundreds. When he started opening in Tests, a chapter was started that wrote a new legacy for Rohit Sharma,” Chopra shared.
However, Aakash Chopra also stated that Rohit Sharma’s performance in India’s 2021 tour of England was one of the best moments of his Test career.
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“Then came the Test tour to England. That was the litmus test. The Test series in England was outstanding. That will define his Test legacy because he played close to 1000 balls in that series. I distinctly remember us talking that Rohit had started loving leaving and defending balls. He was India’s standout performer in that series. He scored runs after that as well. He scored 160-170 runs in the second Test against England in Chennai during COVID times. Eventually, the runs dried up. BGT was the final nail in the coffin. That was the only time when it seemed like Rohit kept himself ahead of the team’s need. I think BGT sealed his fate,” Aakash Chopra concluded.
