“Arey, Tum Logo Ne Kitna Dekha hai Mera Batting. Abhi Bas Na (You guys have seen me bat so much. Now Enough.)”
Rohit Sharmra had you at ‘Arey’. As he did the bunch of Indian media personnel huddled behind his net at the Adelaide Oval. Even if his message to them was a bit sterner in nature. The Indian Test Captain had walked out to bat alongside Rishabh Pant a good hour before India’s scheduled nets session on Tuesday, three days out from the second test.
The Net Session With The Pink Rock
There he’d played and missed at a couple before edging a couple of deliveries from the reserve Indian fast bowlers, like is the case with most batters facing the pink ball in the greenish Adelaide Oval nets pitches. It’s not like those recording their clips from behind Rohit were being noisy or even doing something to distract him. But the senior batter still felt bothered by their presence. In a few seconds, they’d been asked by the team security to step aside.
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Rohit probably was trying to suggest that ‘there’s nothing new to see here’ with his characteristic Arey. But it was also a sign of how keen he was to use the handful of sessions he’ll get to acclimatise with facing a pink ball. Along with getting himself into a series after having missed the opening Test in Perth, he’d got his chance in Canberra over the weekend, but he hadn’t lasted too long before being dismissed. And though there were a couple of nets sessions at the Manuka Oval, Tuesday was Rohit being determined to get his batting rhythms in order, firstly with Abhishek Nayar in tow, before having the other coaches get involved later in the evening when he showed up to bat in the tricky twilight period against his team’s premier fast bowlers.
By the time he walked out to resume his batting preparations on Wednesday, the focus had shifted entirely from simply getting clips of Rohit batting to trying to figure out where he’ll be batting come Friday as he returns to lead the Indians in the Border Gavaskar Trophy. And also, what that could mean for KL Rahul despite his very impressive outings in Perth.
Whether it involved zooming in to see how much of the new-ball he was facing in the nets to also who he was sharing the net with. On Tuesday, Rohit had largely spent his time during training pairing up with Pant, as if to suggest they could be in the middle-order. Especially with the other pairings supposed to suggest that KL Rahul will continue as opener alongside Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill coming in at No 3 with Virat Kohli of course sticking to No 4.
The order was flipped of course on Wednesday with Rohit accompanying Jaiswal to the nets and starting his session by facing the new-ball. Maybe that had to do with Rahul having been tied up with the press conference or maybe it was a sign that the Indians are indeed not sure yet of which way they’ll go. Even if Rahul did admit that he’d been informed about where he’d be batting at the Adelaide Oval. Adding to the intrigue was the fact that Rahul spent most of his interaction with the media talking about his philosophy around opening the batting and how comfortable he was doing it. To put that into context, most questions he had to contend with did have to do with his views on being an opener again in his career.
Rahul for the record faced the new-ball as much as Rohit has done over the last two days even if Rohit was overheard asking one of the reserve bowlers if he was indeed operating with a new-ball when he was asked not to during the latter half of his batting stint on Wednesday.
