"He is short of confidence with self-doubts": Manjrekar reflects on Rohit Sharma

Rohit Sharma (Pic: File Pic)

Former Team India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar opened up on skipper Rohit Sharma's poor run in Test cricket, by saying he has a lack of confidence and self-doubt.

The 2024-25 Test season which started with the series against Bangladesh has been not the very best for Rohit Sharma. Not only did Team India lose their first home series against New Zealand in 12 years, but the skipper is also struggling to score runs.

In seven Test matches, he is only able to score 152 runs with an average of 11.69 with one half-century and a highest score of 52 runs.

In 13 Tests this year, Rohit Sharma has accumulated 607 runs at an average of 26.39, including two centuries and two fifties in 24 innings, with his highest score being 131.

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Speaking to ESPNcricinfo, Sanjay Manjrekar described Rohit's performance in the New Zealand series as a "rude shock." He noted that the Indian skipper's defence was repeatedly breached on home pitches during the series.

"The first obvious answer is a lack of confidence with self-doubts. And it was a bit of a rude shock when he played in that home series against New Zealand, where his defence was getting breached on Indian pitches," Manjrekar said.

The former cricketer recalled Rohit's performance during the 2021 Test series against England, which he described as a turning point in Rohit's Test career.

"I remember commentating on that series in 2021 against England and kept saying, 'This is Pujara-like,' the way he was grinding away. Somewhere, I thought it marked the rebirth of Rohit Sharma as a Test cricketer. He scored two hundreds in his first two Tests, and I felt this was his true calling--playing for time like a typical Mumbai batter," Manjrekar added.

With the five-match Test series between India and Australia currently tied at 1-1, the third match ended in a draw. The fourth Test match will kick start on December 26 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).

India's BGT Squad: Rohit Sharma (C), Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Devdutt Padikkal, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel (wicket-keeper), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar.

Australia Squad: Pat Cummins (C), Sean Abbott, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Travis Head (VC), Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Sam Konstas, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Jhye Richardson, Steve Smith (VC), Mitchell Starc, Beau Webster.

(With ANI Inputs)