“Let’s put him under pressure”: Ravi Shastri revealed how Rohit was made a Test opener

Former India coach Ravi Shastri made a trip under the memory lane and reminded how Rohit Sharma was decided to convert one of the most destructive openers in the test format. While Rohit has been a modern-day great in the white-core format, his journey in Test cricket is full of patience, disturbance and perseverance. Since his debut in 2013, the former Test skipper converted into various positions in mid -order before Ravi Shastri was promoted as a nominated opener in 2019, who served as India’s head coach during that phase.

Power-Hetler’s promotion at the top immediately paid dividends as he took the first step towards ending the longest format of cricket, marking the beginning of a new chapter in his career.

“Batting in four, five, this man was bored. Then I started focusing on this fact, why is he so successful in a day’s cricket? He likes to stay out quickly. I said, if he can go out and do so, he got enough time to play Quick,” Shastri recalled during the latest episode of ICC review.

He said, “He has got shots against Quick, to pick them up. The ground is up, so cricket’s Test cricket can be a honeymoon for him if he starts hugging it,” he said.

For the first time, it was thought to move Rohit to the opening slot in the Test that Shastri’s mind was crossed during the ICC Mains Cricket World Cup in 2019. Rohit dazzled in the tournament, killed beautifully, broke the five centuries, and ended the tournament, which is a staging with 648 runs.

On his first appearance as a test opener, Rohit came out with an ambition to provide a bang and distributed him with his impeccable swagger. He visited the twin centuries against South Africa and went from that point to rack nine out of his 12 Test tons.

“He batted enough at five and six, and he was not here and he was not there. He would throw his 20 or 30s and throw him. (I thought) put him under pressure and sent him (order). And I remember that I am telling him in the West Indies, we want him to (August) 2019, he was after a great World Cup.

“Then he came for the first Test match, and he opened the innings, and he got a hundred. If I am not wrong, he found a big 100 in that first innings, and then he did not look back because he seemed to enjoy it,” he continued.

“They discovered this, and what I should say, he works a lot on his technology because I felt his best batting in England, where you really got to play a little differently, and especially they had to play with soft hands and (left the ball) a lot.

Rohit said in the test format last week, “finished his magnificent career with 4,301 runs, on an average of 40.57, 12 centuries in 12 centuries and 18 half -centuries in 67 tests.

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