Former Indian head coach Ravi Shastri has opened up on one of the biggest turning points in Indian Test cricket in the last decade—Rohit Sharma’s transformation as a red-ball opener. The former cricketer-turned-commentator revealed that the switch wasn’t just tactical but deeply personal. “My coaching career would’ve been incomplete had I not allowed Rohit to open in Tests,” Shastri said way back. Fascinatingly, the decision not only revived Rohit Sharma’s Test career but also gave India a superb opener with a massive ceiling.
Rohit Sharma: From middle-order misfit to opener supreme
For the first half of his Test career, Rohit was floating in the middle order, showing flashes of brilliance but never quite locking his spot. Between 2013 and 2018, he played 47 innings, scored 1585 runs at an average of 39.62 with 3 hundreds—numbers that didn’t do justice to his talent. “Batting at four, five, this guy used to get bored,” Shastri said while speaking at the ICC review.
Rohit Sharma: Test career (middle-order batter)
| Span | Inns | Runs | HS | Ave | 100 | 50 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013–2018 | 47 | 1585 | 177 | 39.62 | 3 | 10 |
The turning point came in 2019 when Shastri and Virat Kohli took a bold call. With the opening slot in flux and Rohit dominating white-ball cricket at the top, the move felt overdue. The result? 2522 runs in 54 innings at an average of 50.03, with 9 centuries—including a career-best 212. His very first series as opener saw him score twin hundreds against South Africa and later a double ton in Ranchi.
“Then I started dwelling on the fact why is he so successful in one-day cricket? He likes to be out there early. I said, if he can go out there and do it, he has got enough time on his hands to play the quicks. He’s got the shots against the quicks, to take them on. The field is up, so Test cricket might be a honeymoon for him if he starts embracing it.”
Rohit Sharma: 2nd phase of Test career (as opener)—His best
| Phase | Inns | Runs | HS | Ave | 100 | 50 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| As opener | 54 | 2522 | 212 | 50.03 | 9 | 7 |
The crowning moment – England tour
But the crowning moment, as Shastri recalled, came in England 2021. Rohit scored 368 runs at 52.57—the best by any Indian in the series. His 127 at The Oval and gritty 83 at Lord’s helped India dream of an overseas series win. “He figured it out and what I must say he worked a lot on his technique because I thought his best batting was in England where you really got to play a little differently and especially he had to play with soft hands and could leave (the ball) a lot.,” said Shastri.
“And he worked on it, which was very good. So, suddenly from nowhere, he was setting up games for you.”
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