Why Rohit Sharma doesn't deserve the criticism he gets

Cricket is one of India’s biggest religions and no wonder cricketers are worshipped here. There are countless players who have the talent, get the opportunity and can sustain at the top level (read Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and the endless list of legends).

There are some others who have the talent, get the opportunity but cannot sustain the momentum (read Vinod Kambli, Subramaniam Badrinath, S Sreesanth etc.).There are players who have a truckload of talent but never got the opportunity (Amarjeet Kaypee, Amol Mazumdar, Rajinder Goel etc.). And then, there are cricketers who tick all the three boxes yet they are never considered as great players.

In today’s social media days, where you can go from hero to villain and hero again in no time, it is difficult for players not to get a stick from fans and critics. Though fans have all the right to criticize a player for his failures/sub-standard performances, it may not always reveal the true picture.

In India’s recent thrashing of the South Africans, almost all the players got a rousing applause from the media and the fans, except for one: Rohit Sharma. He was at sea in all the innings he played and struggled for runs throughout the series. Many pundits claimed that things have reached such an extent that he might have played his last test for India.

Twitter went berserk with trolling the Mumbaikar almost out of proportion. Was the criticism justified? Should he never play test cricket for India again? Let’s try to analyze why he is not as bad a player as he is being portrayed currently.

Not given consistent chances like some other players were

Despite the obvious abundant talent at his disposal, Rohit has never been given a long run in the longest form of the game. Since scoring 177 on his debut innings in 2013, he has played only 29 innings in total. In these matches, he has scored 2 hundreds at an average of 33.18.

Looking at some other Indian batsmen of recent times who have a similar average, World Cup hero Yuvraj Singh at 33.92 in 62 innings (3 hundreds) and Mr. IPL Suresh Raina at 26.48 in 31 innings (1 hundred) were only two batsmen who were given a far better chance to prove themselves.

Now some would argue that both Raina and Yuvi are all-rounders and could roll their arms over as well if needed. Well, Rohit Sharma has a hat-trick to his credit in the IPL and it was baffling to see the likes of Pujara & Dhawan getting to bowl ahead of him in the Kotla test.

Constant shuffling of batting order

The match that started the debate about the current Mumbai Indians’ captain is the 4th test against the Proteas at Kotla. He was included in the team as a specialist batsman in place of Amit Mishra. Having been sent out to bat at No.6, he must have had a brain fade when he holed out to a not-at-all-needed shot at long on, that too having been dropped just in the previous over.

In the 2nd innings, for reasons best known to the team management, he was promoted to No.3 and was castled by a beauty from Morne Morkel for a Golden duck. Now, the question here is, was it required? In a short career of 16 tests, he has batted on a variety of batting positions from opening to batting with the tail.

When a player is not sure of even his batting position, let alone his place in the side, one has to feel for him and the effect it must have had on his confidence.

Form is temporary, class is permanent

The stylish right-handed batsman has been one of the most consistent players for India in the limited overs format in recent times. He is the only player in ODI history to have scored two double tons, which shows his appetite and capacity to play long innings. His stellar record in domestic cricket (average of 54.30 across 117 innings, 5811 runs with highest score of 309*) playing for Mumbai is also a testament of his class.

When he was sent to play Ranji between the series, he answered in the best possible way by slamming a hundred against Uttar Pradesh.

Before coming to this series, he had a decent outing against Sri Lanka. Having been India’s best batsman against SA in the T20 & ODI series, he was unlucky to be dropped from the 1st test to accommodate an extra bowler.

Apart from these, he has not been shown the faith in the longer format. We all know how a lot of great players were taken through their lean patches (read: Sachin Tendulkar, Kumar Sangakkara, AB De Villiers, Rahul Dravid, Younis Khan etc.). Had these players been shown the door at the instance they started faltering, who knows how long we would have had to wait for the 1st ODI double hundred, an ODI hundred in mere 30 balls, 4 consecutive world cup hundreds and a lot of memorable moments of recent cricketing times.

So, it may be that Rohit Sharma is struggling in test cricket, it may be that the media and the fans are right to vent their criticism at him for his current form, but blowing it out of proportion(as it is the case with us many a times) is not fair on him. Whether he deserves another chance of donning the whites for India, let's leave it to the team management but let's not forget that India doesn't play a test for a long time from now and a lot may change till then.

There are few players who look as serene as Rohit Sharma when on song & let's hope he gets what he deserves, not what people think he deserves.