Rohit Sharma in action during a Test match
With India's current opening pairs receiving flak from critics and fans alike for dismal batting show in England, Rohit Sharma, who opens the innings for his team in the shorter formats, has said that he will not mind taking a shot at it in Test matches too if the team management ever considers that as an option in near future.
Firstly, the left-right opening pair of Shikhar Dhawan and Murali Vijay disappointed in the first Test, which India lost by 31 runs in Birmingham. In the second Test at Lord's, where the No.1 Test side suffered emphatic innings and 159-run defeat, Vijay and Rahul too failed to put up an impressive show.
Amidst all this, Rohit was asked a question if he would like to open the innings in Test matches too. The 31-year-old has scored 1479 runs at a shade under 40 per innings in 25 Tests with three hundreds and nine half-centuries but is currently out of favour as far as longest format is concerned.
"Look, I have never been offered (to open the innings in Tests) yet but I am open to anything as in whatever the team management wants. I never thought I will be an opener in ODIs when I started playing or when I was playing for India. But it happened along the way, so I (want to) keep my options open. No option is shut for me, so if the opportunity comes, I will take it," Rohit told media persons at a promotional event.
While his technique in testing conditions outside the Indian sub-continent has time and again come under scanner, the stylish batsman is still hopeful of a Test recall
"I want to be part of the (Test) team, but it is not in my hands. I have to wait for the opportunity, whenever it comes, I have to be ready for it. To be ready, I am doing everything, training, doing as much as possible to give myself the best chance when the opportunity comes there," he added.
Rohit came in support of the under-fire team which is down 0-2 in the five-match and said that a comeback is still possible even though it won't be easy.
"Yes of course, we have to believe that we can do it. It's not going to be that easy. We have done it in South Africa we lost the first two Test matches and then we bounced back in Johannesburg and won that Test match," Rohit said.
"I think we can do it, it's not that we can't and we won the Test match. We have won Test matches in England before, we just need to get in that mindset, how we won the Test matches in England on previous tours and we have to play like that," said Rohit.
"There are still three Test matches to go, and I think it can turn around if we have the belief that we can do it," he noted.
(With PTI inputs)
