Before India and West Indies started the third Test of their series, much of the discussion centered around who Murali Vijay would replace in the playing XI. Vijay had missed the Jamaica game after being struck on the hand in Antigua, but having recovered in time for St Lucia, the expectation was that he would take his place at the top of the order.
KL Rahul, who had scored a superb hundred in Jamaica after replacing Vijay, was expected to keep his place, and it was expected to come down to a straight choice between Shikhar Dhawan and Cheteshwar Pujara for a place in the top three. Pujara had averaged just 30 in his previous 17 Tests, after scoring at 65 in the first 17. Dhawan was erratic, but with an uncanny knack of summoning up a big performance when his place was under threat.
As it turned out, Virat Kohli and the team management came up with a googly. When the team sheets were given out, there was no Vijay and no Pujara. Dhawan and Rahul were opening, with Kohli moving up to No
3 and Ajinkya Rahane to No 4. All so that Rohit Sharma could be accommodated at No 5.
Rohit announced himself with two straight hundreds against West Indies in 2013 – Sachin Tendulkar’s farewell series – but has found the format a real struggle since. In St Lucia, he made 9 and 41, hardly bolstering the arguments in favour of indulging his talent.
Vijay, who has scored Test hundreds in England and Australia and averages 47.55 over the past two years, has every reason to feel disgruntled. For all his record-breaking exploits in ODIs, Rohit has convinced few people with the looseness of his strokeplay in Tests. Take out those debut hundreds against West Indies, and he averages 23.5 in 15 Tests. There have been just four half-centuries in 29 innings.
More importantly, the idea of disrupting the order to fit Rohit in is ludicrous. Kohli averages 50.64 at No 4 since taking over the position that was Tendulkar’s for so long. At No 3, he has managed just 97 runs in four Tests. India simply cannot afford such gambits, especially with Rohit having done little to prove that he’s worthy of them.
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