Cheteshwar Pujara is of the opinion that Rohit Sharma’s recent move to bat in the middle order contributed a lot to his poor showing in the ongoing Test series with Australia. Recent scores show the India captain has not been scoring runs and on Day 4 of the third Test match in Brisbane could only score 10 runs before conceding his wicket to Pat Cummins. This was the sixth time in 12 innings that Cummins put out Rohit. The heavy shot selection from Rohit was very poor as highlighted by Pujara, who added that this also resulted in extra pressure put on the star batter due to lack of runs.
“It wasn’t a length where you can drive. We have seen that even a fuller length ball, it’s hard to drive. He, kind of tried to punch that ball. He should have defended that ball, allowed the ball to come to him rather than going for that ball. And I think the tough part is he hasn’t been, amongst runs, and, that’s where the pressure is,” said Pujara during his analysis on Star Sports.
The Indian opener has batted at No. 6 with KL Rahul now opening for the team with Yashasvi Jaiswal, that according to Pujara is difficult for any player to adjust to, adding that it may well be the reason behind his current slump due to the position in the batting order.
“He’s been opening the innings, now batting at number 6. But I don’t mean anything against the team when I say that, because I feel that much opening and having to wait creates doubts in the mind. It doesn’t help you when you’re generally at the top of batting order and then suddenly you have to bat at number 6. So that you don’t get that momentum either,” he added.
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