Vikram Rathour feels Rohit Sharma 'too good a player' to not be playing in all formats

Rohit Sharma is one of the greats in white-ball cricket for India. In limited-overs, he has been acclaimed as one of the best openers in the world, but he had a start-stop Test career. After the flop show of batsman KL Rahul as an opener on the Caribbean land, it opened the doors for the debate over not selecting Rohit Sharma in the playing XI of the team. Now, the new Indian batting coach Vikram Rathour has come out backing Rohit Sharma ahead of the Test series against South Africa

After India returned from West Indies, many former Indian cricketers like VVS Laxman, Sourav Ganguly came in support of giving a chance to Rohit Sharma as an opener in Test cricket. As an opener, Rohit has been the most successful for India in the last 5 years but didn’t get ample of chances in Tests.

Since 2018, India have tried out seven openers in Tests including KL Rahul, Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, Parthiv Patel, Prithvi Shaw, Mayank Agarwal, and Hanuma Vihari. In this period, Rahul has got the most opportunities – 13 Tests and 23 innings – and averages 22.31 with a solitary century and four fifties.

Indian batting coach Vikram Rathour backs Rohit Sharma

Now, after Rohit Sharma retained his place in the Indian Test squad that will face South Africa, Vikram Rathour backed him to do well as a Test opener in all conditions. “He is too good a player to not be playing in any game. That is what is everyone is thinking. He has done so well in white-ball cricket as an opener so there is no reason why he can’t succeed as a Test opener provided he gets enough opportunities,” Rathour said as quoted by India TV.

The 32-year-old has scored more than 10,000 runs in limited-overs cricket but has managed to play only 27 Tests, averaging 39.62, much lower than his ODI average of 48.52. He is also currently leading Mumbai Indians in the IPL. Currently, he is the part of Indian T20I squad which is going to face Proteas in the 2nd match of a three-match T20I series.