Sports News: Rohit Sharma is now a regular in India’s Test team. But not just because he happens to be the skipper, the 37-year-old also finds himself among the best openers around in red-ball cricket. But that wasn’t always the case as there was a time when Rohit was struggling to find his way in the longer version of the game. Nevertheless, opening for him saw his resurgence in Tests. Rohit gives credit for his Test success to Ravi Shastri and Virat Kohli. Shastri was the head coach of India when Kohli was their captain. Opening began to see Rohit at both the ends in Tests.
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Coming on the podcast with sports presenter Jatin Sapru, Rohit spoke about the role played by Ravi Shastri and Virat Kohli for his promotion up the order. “I did not have any other option but to open since my Test numbers were going only down here consistently when used as a middle-order player,” Rohit said.
“I was very grateful to Ravi Shastri and Virat Kohli for giving me that opportunity to bat up the order because it was not going to be an easy decision again in Test cricket. They gave me an opportunity there,” Rohit said.
“(Did they have a chat with you?) Yeah, they asked me (whether he wanted to open or not). They asked me to go and play one practice match which I did and I got out on the first ball in that practice game. But I thought that I don’t have any other option now,” he added.