Over the span of the last two years, Rohit Sharma has proliferated in the longest format of the game more than any other batsman in the world. The way Marnus Labuschange made a surprise entry and grabbed the limelight by being the highest scorer for Australia in the opening edition of the WTC, similarly Sharma made a late entry and has rocked the world with his own brand of aggressive and yet sustainable batting.
No matter how many praises one would heap on Sharma, it would simply fall short in front of the majestic brilliance that this right-hander has shown in the longest format of the game. However, it was not always that he was an opener. He started his Test career as a middle-order batsman like the other two formats and then an opening crisis at India shoehorned him to the top of the order that actually unleashed the best in the Hitman.
The rise in rankings for Rohit Sharma
On September 1st, 2017, Sharma ranked 52 in the Test men’s rankings in batting and used to be more of a filler than the predominant avatar that he is right now. He gained 6 spots to climb up the pecking order in the following year establishing himself in the 46th position with 529 points.
Sadly for Sharma, a string of mediocre performances made him slip off to the 54th position with 518 points on 1st September 2019.
The last couple of years when Rohit was promoted to the top, he started pulling off wonders and he bagged the 16th position with an overwhelming 674 points. As the new rankings were released yesterday for Test cricket, Sharma grabbed his best position ever and has moved up to the fifth spot with 773 points.
The meteoric ascendancy with an accelerated garnering of points has underlined how imperative Sharma has been to the Indian side and he still continues to be India’s solitary hope in an otherwise murky sky. His performances at the top have helped the Indian cricket team to string themselves together in case of a disaster which has actually been pretty frequent off late.
Reasons why the Hitman is the best Test batsman in the current Indian roster
There are a couple of facts that prove Rohit is undoubtedly India’s best Test batsman at the moment. Firstly, he is India’s highest-ranked Test batsman at the moment and is the only Indian batsman to be a part of the top five. Virat Kohli was toppled from the perch owing to his recent sequence of mediocre knocks.
Secondly, Sharma has also managed to grab his highest Test ratings which are 773. The leap that he has taken from a middle-order nondescript cricketer to a force to be reckoned with, he has changed the dynamics of the game completely.
In the face of incessant batting collapses, if one man has been consistent throughout, it has been Rohit Sharma. He has also been technically accurate and has belted out perfect knocks to provide a lesson to remaining batters who have failed terribly to bat in overseas conditions.
He will be a part of the fourth Test of the series that will begin from tomorrow at Oval. The series is currently level after England imposed a humiliating defeat on the Indians at Headingley to avenge their earlier defeat at the Lord’s.
