‘If he was going to bat at 9, he should have batted at 7’ - Sunil Gavaskar opens up on Rohit Sharma's batting position in 2nd ODI

While fielding in the slips, Indian captain Rohit Sharma suffered an unexpected blow in the first innings that ruled him out from fielding further in the match. The opener also skipped batting for the majority of the time but eventually got involved when team India was on the verge of defeat.

With multiple stitches on his hand, the 35-year-old came to bat at number nine and gave India a perfect platform to make a comeback. However, his 51* off 28 deliveries went in vain as India eventually lost the match by five runs. Nevertheless, his valiant effort was heavily appreciated by many former cricketers including former India international Sunil Gavaskar. However, the 73-year-old believes that Sharma should have promoted himself in the order in case his intention was to bat in the end.

“Everybody knows about the quality and the class of the man. Since India came so close, the question is why didn’t he come to bat earlier? If he was going to bat at no. 9, he should have batted at no. 7. What that could’ve done is I think, Axar Patel could have played a bit differently.

"When Axar saw it was going to be Shardul Thakur and Deepak Chahar, he probably was thinking that maybe Rohit Sharma is not going to bat. And thus, he went for that shot. When they were at that stage, no need to play that shot,” Gavaskar said while talking to Sony Sports after the second ODI.

“If Rohit had come at the other end, Axar could’ve batted the way he was batting and who knows the results could’ve been different,” he added.

Sharma likely to be ruled out of the first Test against Bangladesh

Following his injury in the second ODI, Rohit Sharma is likely to be ruled out of the first Test against Bangladesh. Bengal opener Abhimanyu Easwaran is likely to replace him in the squad as either Umran Malik or Mukesh Kumar will likely be called up to replace Mohammed Shami. Meanwhile, all-rounder Saurabh Kumar is in line to replace Ravindra Jadeja, who failed to recover in time for the Test series.