Dazzlers in Colour, Pale in Whites: Rohit Sharma and Martin Guptill

If Rohit Sharma seems to have enough time to read a newspaper while playing some of the most breathtaking cricket shots per Mr. Harsha Bhogle, Martin Guptill surely makes it to those newspapers with his blitzkrieg-like batting and those effortless shots. But, what happens to the most gifted timers of the white cricket ball when they change into their whites? The same flawless stroke-players seem nonplussed against the red cherry. And you don’t have to believe a columnist for that, their numbers speak out loud of the apathy that they go through in the whites.

Rohit Sharma, the hitman, the only man on the face of this earth to have scored two double centuries in One-Day Internationals. The man who has against his name a record that seems safe for quite some time to come, that of the highest individual score of 264! Imagine saying that to someone who has watched cricket in the early part of this century when all of us thought that 220-230 off 50 overs was defendable and anything above 250 took you closer to victory. Boy, have we all grown old so quickly, or maybe the game has evolved quicker than we thought. Let’s just assume that the latter is true. For someone who plays such marathon innings in the shorter format of the game, you’d think Rohit is an extremely reliable batsman in the longest format of the game. But, he is not! And if you belong to one of those clans which advocate Rohit Sharma’s test selection, chances are you will either be laughed out of the room or bashed (if you’re amid Gautam Gambhir fans). But, why such discrepancies in form? Why is the man who on good days can bat blindfolded and on bad ones mistime balls for sixes over a 100m long, struggling in the longer format of the game?

Martin Guptill the man who would form an excellent ally of Rohit if the two of them were to gang up and petrify bowlers (read: ODI bowlers) in their nightmares. But, both of them would be perfect allies for featuring in test bowlers’ dreams which will make them fall off their beds laughing. Guptill, born and brought up in the beautiful city of sails: Auckland, is a bludgeoning strokeplayer. He can simply flick balls for sixes which can go as long as over 100 metres. Imagine the distance a wild hoick from a man who has the rare gift of perfect timing and exceptional bat-speed would travel for. And yes, as a perfect ally, Guptill is also a member of the 200-club with Rohit. Yes, the same 237* against the West Indies in Wellington, the innings which contained 24 fours and 11 sixes! Wellington was so uncommonly warm that morning. But, come test cricket, and the same man who bats like a well prepared student ready to ace the exam in an ODI bats like a scrappy student willing to merely pass in Test cricket.

Rohit Sharma who averages a healthy 42.08 in ODIs and scores at a brisk pace too, averages a paltry 32 in test cricket after 18 tests. Rohit’s last few international test scores (before the Kanpur Test) are 9 & 41, 62, 10*. If they seem decent enough, remember they came against a reasonably feeble West Indies attack in circumstances where he was mostly provided with a platform to go out and score. His Duleep Trophy scores aren’t all that impressive too. The only game that he played for India Blue against India Red saw him score 30 & 32*. And that is where the problem is, he seems to get starts and then fizzles. Like he has lost interest, which is so uncharacteristic of a man who bats like a ravenous tiger in the ODIs, always hungry for more. Martin Guptill’s test numbers aren’t ones that he’d want you to read as the first thing about him either. While his ODI average is 43.25, Guptill’s struggle is evident in his test average which stands at 29.59 after a decent run of over 40 test matches.

So, what is the issue with both these stars? You’d be surprised that there’s a one-word answer to that question. Patience. If you’ve watched the two of them bat ever, you’d know they belong to the go-getter gang. If there’s a ball outside the off-stump, on a good length, they’ll throw hard hands at it. While this fetches prosperous returns in the shorter formats of the game where the white ball is used, it also leads to their failures in the longest format where the red ball moves more than the white one. Another issue that is restricted to Rohit alone is his need for a stable position in the batting line-up. Throughout his career, he has batted at various positions ranging from no.3 to no.6. While that’s an allowable maneuver in the shorter formats, in the longest format it can get suicidal given how perfectly tailored the roles are for every batting position.

This series might just be what these two batsmen need at the moment. They have enamoured us all by the sheer magnificence of their talent in colours, it’s time they brought that into the whites too.