‘If he does well, the world opens up for him, if he doesn’t, then move on’

The India ODI team vice-captain was handed this lifeline after KL Rahul was axed following indifferent form, having gone without a half-century in 12 Test innings. Rohit was selected for the recent Test series in the West Indies as a middle-order batsman, but the success of Ajinkya Rahane and Hanuma Vihari meant he had to warm the bench in both matches that India won in the Caribbean.

Terming Rohit as the most destructive batsman in white-ball cricket, Gambhir confessed he had endured sleepless nights as captain of the Kolkata Knight Riders franchise. “Rohit is the most destructive batsman in the shorter formats. As a captain in IPL, I have had sleepless nights thinking about him and probably AB de Villiers. No other batsman has given me sleepless nights in T20 cricket.”

Gautam Gambhir terms Rohit Sharma as the most destructive batsman in white-ball cricket. (FILE)

Gambhir reckoned that if Rohit comes good as an opener against South Africa, it would open up a plethora of opportunities for the 32-year-old.

“If he does well, the world opens up for him. But if he doesn’t, then it’s time to look at someone else for this slot. For the home series, I have always wanted Rohit to open and have a youngster as a back-up opener, rather than have a situation where he is selected and is warming the bench. If you select him in the Test squad, make him open because I have always maintained that he is too good a player to be sitting out. If there’s no place for him in the middle order, he should take up the opportunity and open… because the way I see it, if Rohit has to play Test cricket, he must open,” he opined.

There’s a good reason why Gambhir is backing Rohit as India’s Test opener. In six years, spanning 27 Tests, he has been pigeon-holed as a middle-order batsman, where his returns have not been anything special — 1,585 runs at 39.62. Worse still, two of his three centuries in this format came in his debut series against the West Indies in 2013.

In the last couple of years, however, Rohit has shown the ambition and verve to replicate his white-ball form in whites. Like the manner in which he etched out 47 against the Proteas on a treacherous Centurion track, or his counter-attacking 37 against Australia in Adelaide in 2018. These knocks illustrated Rohit’s class no doubt, but were by no means career-defining ones.

In recent times, the emergence of Vihari has further dented Rohit’s chances of cementing his place in India’s crowded middle order. Gambhir believed that he has no reasons to crib. “He cannot complain that he has not got enough opportunities in the middle order. Rohit has been given a longer run… in fact, I cannot think of any other batsman who has got so many opportunities in international cricket,” he observed.

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A veteran of 58 Tests, Gambhir knows that opening in Tests is a specialised job and not everyone’s cup of tea. But he insisted that Rohit, with his flair and insouciance, will stake his claim by giving India dream starts, something Virender Sehwag consistently provided in his pomp.

“It will be a challenge for him, no doubt. The job requires a change of mindset. All his life, he has opened only in white-ball cricket. He has never opened in Tests, not even in first-class cricket. Sehwag, who was essentially a middle-order batsman, opened in Tests and did really well for us, but no one has really done well since,” Gambhir explained.

Rohit will get his chance when India take on South Africa in the first Test in Visakhapatnam starting October 2.