The most anticipated cricket series of the year is all set to begin as India face Australia. The 69-day all format tour will kickstart this Friday at the Sydney Cricket Ground as the two teams face each other in the first of three One Day Internationals. Despite all the talks around this being an even contest, one major factor is going to be the absence of India’s premier opening batter in Rohit Sharma.
The 33-year-old has been the king of the white ball format. Since his debut in 2007, for the first time, India are going to Australia to play ODI cricket without him in the squad. Three tri-series, two bilateral ODI series and one World Cup – that is the amount of cricket Sharma has played in Australia in 12 years and it will be interesting to see how India cope without him.
Hitman Down-Under:
It would be not entirely correct to say Rohit Sharma enjoys playing against a certain team, in a certain territory. The 33-year old has scored his ODI runs against every opposition in all corners of the world. But in and against Australia, he seems to be in a different mood. Sharma has played a total of 28 ODI games down under beginning from the 2008 CB series to the ODI series in early 2019. In the same, he has scored 1,354 runs, which include five centuries and five half-centuries. Out of these 1,094 runs, all five centuries and three half-centuries have come in the 17 games he has opened the batting. This reflects why he has been more successful as an opener.
Source: Twitter (ICC)
Against Australia in 40 ODI games, Rohit has scored 2208 runs, the second-highest by an Indian batsman. Only behind Sachin Tendulkar (3077 runs).
Rohit’s impact in recent years:
Every great batsman enjoys a time in his life when runs and records flow from their bat. While there is no evidence to suggest that he is willing to stop anytime soon, Rohit Sharma in the last three years has been a nightmare for any bowler. The Indian opener has scored more than a thousand runs each in the last three calendar years (1293, 1030, and 1490). We need no reminder of his heroics in the 2019 ICC World Cup, where he scored 648 runs in nine games that included a record-breaking five centuries – the most by anyone in a single edition of the World Cup.
Source: Twitter (ICC)
Moreover, since 2017 Rohit has at least one fifty-plus knock in 14 out of the 15 series/tournaments that he has played in Indian colours. England, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, UAE, Asia Cup, Champions Trophy, World Cup, he has done it everywhere and against everyone. 13 half centuries, 17 hundreds, and one double hundred. All of this in three immensely successful years.
India wins more matches with Rohit in the side:
The big question is, can India sustain without Rohit Sharma? Something which we’ll only find out when the players take to the field, but the numbers for the men in blue without their star opener don’t look good. In the last three years, the golden period in Sharma’s career, he has not been part of the team in only 11 ODI games across four series/tournaments. India have used the combination of six openers in these 11 fixtures. Out of these, four batsmen have scored fifty-plus scores on a combined six occasions out of the 22 possible.
In these 11 games in the absence of Rohit, the men-in-blue have only won five games, lost five, and tied one. A win percentage of less than 50 percent (around 45.5).
Whereas with Rohit, India has played 68 ODIs since 2017, and won 50 of them, lost 17, and tied one, amounting to a win percentage of 73.5 percent- a mammoth stat and a big difference.
Source: Twitter (ECB)
The positives for India will be the presence of in-form batters in Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, and Mayank Agarwal with the three of them coming into the series on the back of fantastic IPL campaigns. In all likelihood, we could see Rahul batting in the middle order, with Shikhar and Mayank opening. However, India will have the luxury to begin the innings with Rahul and Dhawan, and bring in an extra batsman in the middle order instead of Mayank.
All said and done, it will be interesting to see how the men in blue perform in the toughest cricket backyard without their most successful opener in recent times.