NEW DELHI: Following his poor performance against Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, India skipper Rohit Sharma‘s childhood coach Dinesh Lad has recommended that the opening batsman play a few domestic matches to get ready for Test cricket.
India missed out on a third consecutive berth in the World Test Championship final after losing the five-Test series 1-3.
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After missing the first Test of the series because his second kid was born, Rohit was unable to score beyond 10 runs in the next five innings and decided to rest for the fifth Test at Sydney Cricket Ground.
He received public criticism for his poor performances after scoring just 31 runs in five innings of the series.
Additionally, his leadership abilities were questioned by the media and previous cricket players, which cost India a chance to win the ICC major in red-ball cricket.
Dinesh Lad emphasized that Rohit’s goals were to win the World Test Championship and the ODI World Cup after winning the T20 World Cup the previous year. However, the coach advised Rohit to prioritize playing domestic cricket over Test cricket following the debacle in Australia.
“I think Rohit has only two goals – first to win the World Test Championship and second to win the ODI World Cup. If he wanted he should have retired from all formats (after T20 World Cup title) but he only retired from T20 cricket. He is not the only cricketer who was struggling to score runs. He should play one or two domestic games to prepare for Test matches,” Dinesh Lad told IANS.
“Because of T20 cricket, the mindset of batters has changed. He is a technically sound cricketer and against England last year he was scoring good runs. If we win, people call Rohit the best captain but when we lose people say he doesn’t know captaincy,” the Dronacharya awardee added.
Rohit will next prepare for the white-ball match against England prior to the Champions Trophy after a difficult stretch in Test cricket. Beginning on January 22, India will host England for three ODIs and five T20Is.
