Rohit Sharma’s insipid captaincy lets Australia run riot

Melbourne: It was a slow trudge out, with head bowed, for India’s captain Rohit Sharma. The imagery just fit. He had just been dismissed for 3, trying to play a tentative pull shot that was a cross between something you play in gully cricket and how a tailender usually responds to a short ball.

The ball, from Pat Cummins, was well outside the off-stump, short of length and there to be hit but perhaps the muddled mind was slow on the uptake. By the time Rohit decided what he wanted to play, it was too late. He miscued the shot and Scott Boland, at mid-off, had the easiest of catches to take.

Sharma had asked for the opener’s role, pushed KL Rahul down the order and then he was dismissed playing a shot that was once considered to be his strength. Cue for criticism? No. Save that for the insipid captaincy in the first session on Day 2 of the Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

For starters, India started the day with Mohammed Siraj. Not Jasprit Bumrah as most would have expected. The reason for that was not entirely clear but it helped Australia and Cummins, the batter, get off to a good start. The over went for 9 runs and it set the tone for what was to follow.

Sharma kept the pacers in operation for far too long and in that first hour — Australia piled on 60 runs. Given that Australia started the day on 311/6, this was a vital period in the game. Even if one were to make leeway for Steve Smith, there was no real attempt to attack Cummins with aggressive fields. Rather, there seemed to be singles on offer wherever one looked.

It is easy to throw the ball to Bumrah and rely on his individual brilliance but Sharma clearly needed to get more out of his other bowlers. Too often, India were being reactive and not proactive as they needed to be.

When Sharma did finally get Ravindra Jadeja into the attack, he, at least, presented a different challenge to the batters. But by this point, the Aussies were cruising. Smith and Cummins put on 100 runs off 128 balls and just as they were looking to take things up a gear, the partnership was broken.

Jadeja struck but the bigger problem was how timid India seemed to be on the field. A few early wickets would have sealed India’s fightback and raised their morale but the visitors just sat on their heels.

Speaking on SEN Cricket while commentating, former Australia opener Simon Katich said, “India have been dismantled here and it’s started at the top with Rohit. It’s not been proactive captaincy at all. It has been reactive and they look like they are in disarray. Australia are bullying them.”

Former Australia keeper Adam Gilchrist was particularly critical on air. He compared India’s performance at Perth with what was on show at Melbourne. “Bumrah was captain there and when in doubt, he went to himself but he got the job done. I thought his captaincy was impressive,” said Gilchrist.

India controlled the game at Perth and won the key moments while at Melbourne, they have done the exact opposite. They had a chance to seize the initiative on the morning of Day 2 but instead allowed Australia to run riot. Given how Bumrah had managed things in Perth, one can’t help but think whether his approach would have been different.

Perhaps Sharma’s own lack of form is affecting his judgment. Most captains need to back up their instincts with performance. If you aren’t doing that, then your words don’t quite carry the same weight. And as good as Sharma has been as skipper; as calming as his influence has been, the numbers simply don’t add up. Across five innings in the series, the 37-year-old has added just 22 runs.

Sharma had a deep point for Cummins, he had fielders on the boundary for the No.10 and No.11. This wasn’t the fearlessness that he demands from his players. This was something else and he should know that too.

The bowlers were bowling on both sides of the wicket and that didn’t help matters either. MS Dhoni would have asked bowlers to cut down the runs and take it from there. Virat Kohli would have demanded aggression from his team. But Rohit’s plan wasn’t very clear.

It just felt as if we are watching the final throes of Sharma’s captaincy. And if India don’t manage a dramatic reversal of fortunes in the rest of the series, that feeling just might become a reality.