Ready to spar on Boxing Day: India fret on Rohit’s batting position

Melbourne: Divine intervention and a wagging tail might have lifted India’s sagging spirits in Brisbane but an out-of-form skipper Rohit Sharma’s batting position will be in focus against a dangerous Australia bracing to deliver the knockout punch in the ‘Boxing Day’ Test starting here on Thursday.

The Indian skipper was the last to hit the nets on Christmas eve and there is speculation doing rounds that he could replace the team’s most assured opener, KL Rahul, at the top of the order. If that happens, Rahul will come in at No. 3 while Shubman Gill could either play in the middle order or make way for a Dhruv Jurel in the playing eleven.

The series is currently locked 1-1. The Indian skipper stopped batting in the middle order after being elevated to the opening slot back in 2019. But he chose to come down in Adelaide and Brisbane to accommodate an in-form Rahul and first-Test centurion Yashasvi Jaiswal.

The move was a spectacular failure and it remains to be seen how the team adjusts in case Rohit opens and Gill is either dropped or bats at number five. Asked about his batting position during the pre-match press conference, he was borderline irritated. “Let’s not worry about that.

I think who bats where, we should be discussing that within ourselves and I shouldn’t be answering this question in every press conference,” the skipper just about held his compo-sure.

Both captains feel that 1-1 after three games is a fair re-flection of the competition between the sides but things can quickly change at the MCG. The rain-affected draw at the Gabba was like a soothing balm for India after Pink Test deba-cle in Adelaide. But now, India are back at one of their fa-vourite Australian venues where they have remained unde-feated in Tests since the 2014 series.

The last two (2018-19 and 2020-21) of the three Tests (other being 2014-15) resulted in Indian wins where solid batting played its part.

But this line-up, with three young mavericks (Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rishabh Pant and Shubman Gill), one confident opener (KL Rahul) and a couple of age-ing stalwarts (Virat Kohli and Rohit) hasn’t looked very as-sured. They will have to put up their best show against a home team which isn’t exactly a runaway favourite either but has shown tremendous resilience.

For under-fire Rohit, it is his own reputation as a Test bat-ter that is at stake while Kohli will need to channelise the inner champion in him which lit up the MCG skyline with the most talked about sixes in his T20 career. Those sixes required flair, the situation now will warrant loads of pa-tience when Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc tease him with that probing line outside the off stump.