Rohit Sharma: India’s T20 World Cup-winning skipper Rohit Sharma has also been a great Test player. Many cricketing experts talk about his records in the limited-overs and white ball format. But no one realises that HITMAN has been a good Test match batter. He had scored century in both the innings of his debut red ball game against West Indies in 2013.
As an opening batter, Sharma Ji also amassed a double century in the longer version of the game. Apart from his 5 T20 International hundreds and three double centuries in the One Day International format, HITMAN has even scored a lone double ton in the red ball format as well. Rohit began his captaincy stint with the Indian Team in 2021 when Sri Lanka toured India for a three-match red ball series.
Today in this segment, we shall let our viewers and readers know which was the first Overseas Test series that Rohit Sharma had captained for India –
Rohit Sharma Had Led India For The First Time In An Overseas Test Match During The World Test Championship Final Of 2023 –
India had reached their first-ever final of the Test event called The World Test Championship (WTC) in 2021 under the leadership of Virat Kohli and in 2023, again the Men in Blue reached the final of that red ball event. Both of the WTC finals were played in the UK and India had lost them against New Zealand and Australia.
The 2023 World Test Championship final was the first one for Rohit Sharma in overseas conditions. Before that Test event, HITMAN had never led India in any of the overseas Test matches. India was humiliated by the Aussies in the 2023 WTC Final, which was played at Kennington Oval in London.
India couldn’t match the performance of Cummins and Co in that title clash of the Test format. The Men in Blue had started the match proceedings well. They picked up three quick wickets. But Travis Head and Steven Smith stole the show from India as they slammed fine centuries in the first innings.
Australia went past 300 runs on the first day itself and none of the Indian bowlers weren’t successful in stopping them in both the innings. The Aussies scored 469 runs in their first innings and they also continued to blast the Indian bowlers in their second innings. Australia declared their second innings on 270 runs for the loss of 8 wickets.
India had also cut a sorry figure with the bat as well. Rohit and Co were bundled out for 296 runs in the first innings. They reached that score mainly because of Ajinkya Rahane and Shardul Thakur. But in the second innings, none of the Indian batters could even slam a half-century. The Men in Blue could only amass 234 runs and lost the 2023 WTC finals by 209 runs.
Rohit’s debut overseas test match as a skipper was a total flop show as a captain and as a batter. He could score 15 runs in the first innings and 43 runs in the second innings. Now again, India is in the number one position in the WTC rankings and they might face the Aussies again in the WTC 2025 Final. So this time Rohit Sharma is expected to learn from the 2023 WTC Final loss and perform even better as a batsman and captain.
