London: After a stop-start eight-year Test career,
team India opener Rohit Sharma brought up his maiden overseas century in style on Day 3 of the fourth Test against England on Saturday. He crossed the 100-run mark in style with a gigantic six off Moeen Ali. His innings was laced with 14 fours and a six.
Rohit Sharma on Saturday revealed that deciding to open in Test matches back in 2019 was one of the biggest decisions he took as a cricketer, as his last opportunity to proof his mettle in the longest format of the game.
“In the back of my mind, I knew this was the last chance for me (Tests), trying another position in the batting order. When the offer came to me to open the batting, I was very much aware of it because the talks were happening within the management at some stage,” Rohit said.
Despite starting his Test career against West Indies in remarkable fashion with two hundreds in 2013, Rohit’s stint in whites was curtailed, after he failed to score runs in the middle over. The team management finally decided to use the limited-overs opener in a new role at the top of the order in 2019. The red-ball opener, began India’s first World Test Championship campaign against South Africa at Vishakapatanam in October 2019. In his first stint, the Mumbai Indians captain slammed 529 runs from four innings at an average of 132.25.
“I batted in middle order before and things didn’t go as per the way I wanted it to and I knew this was my last opportunity to try out and you know management is thinking whatever I want to try. When you are playing a sport, you always have to take those chances, those risks and so I was ready for it and didn’t come to me as a surprise. It would have been my last opportunity if I wouldn’t have succeeded. Anything could have happened,” he added.
Rohit further mentioned that the team management had told him that he will get a long run, but back of his mind he knew this was his last opportunity.
“That (about it being his last opportunity) was my feeling. I don’t know about others because the team management told me I will have a long run. But I wanted to think in a way that this is it. I have to make good use of this opportunity and for that I have to do whatever it takes,” said Rohit.
Rohit is currently India’s highest run-scorer in the Test series against England with 368 runs, just behind England captain Joe Root (528) in the batting charts from both sides.
