Australia standing between India and WTC final; Sharma’s captaincy experience is less

The 4-match series against Australia will be the first big test of Rohit Sharma’s captaincy career. The first Test will be played in Nagpur from 9 February. After getting the captaincy in February 2022, Rohit could captain India in only 2 Tests. Meanwhile, due to injury, he could not play 3 Tests in England and Bangladesh.

Rohit has little experience in Test captaincy. At the same time, the series is very important for India to reach the final of the World Test Championship. In the next story, we will know through statistics that what difficulties will be faced by Captain Rohit in this series. How has he performed under his captaincy and what India needs to do to reach the WTC final.

Captained in only 2 matches
After getting the Test captaincy, Rohit Sharma could captain India in only 2 matches. These Tests were played against Sri Lanka in March last year. India won both the tests. After this series, India played one Test in England and 2 Tests in Bangladesh, but Rohit could not be a part of the team due to injury.

During this, fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah captained England and KL Rahul captained Bangladesh. India lost the Test match in England. At the same time, Team India made a clean sweep in Bangladesh.

injury bothered
In the last one year, the biggest reason for staying away from Team India was Rohit’s injury. Due to injury, he has been able to play only 2 out of the last 10 Tests for India. Last month also he got injured during the ODI series in Bangladesh. After which KL Rahul took command in his place in the Test series. Rohit is fully fit now. Having won the ODI series against Sri Lanka and New Zealand, they are ready to win the series against Australia with a better mindset.

Average of 30 in captaincy
Batsman Rohit Sharma’s performance in his Test captaincy has also not been seen against the big team so far. In 2 matches against Sri Lanka in 2022, there were no special runs from his bat. Then in 2 Tests, he scored only 90 runs at an average of 30. His best score was also 46 runs.

scored a lot of runs in india
Rohit Sharma made his Test debut in 2013 in the 2-match home series against the West Indies. This was the last Test match of Sachin Tendulkar’s career. Rohit has scored a lot in India since then. He has 1,760 runs in 20 Tests played in India. In these, 7 centuries and 6 half-centuries came. His bat did not yield much runs in foreign countries initially, but in the last two years he played a key role in the team’s victories by scoring runs in Australia and England.

Must win for WTC final
The Test series against Australia is very important for India to reach the final of the World Test Championship. Winning more than 2 Tests will increase the chances of Team India reaching the finals. As soon as the team wins 3 tests, it will be confirmed to play the final.

After defeating Australia in 2 Tests, India will also become number one in the ICC Test Team Rankings. India is currently at number two in the Test rankings. At the same time, the Australian team is on top. The Indian team is at number-1 in the ODI and T20 team rankings.

What is the challenge before Rohit?
There are some players in the Australian team who can create big trouble in front of captain Rohit. The biggest name among them is Steve Smith, who has scored 660 runs in India at an average of 60. In 6 matches, he has also scored 3 centuries and a half-century. Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon and Usman Khawaja, the number-1 batsmen of the ICC Test rankings, will also challenge Rohit.