Dean Jones: “He has got to take pride in his defensive skills”
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Former Australia batsman Dean Jones believes that Rohit Sharma’s “defensive skills are letting him down” and starting to hinder his Test career.
In the ongoing Test series against South Africa, Rohit has struggled with the bat in the first two Tests as he has scored 78 runs at an average of 19.50.
Rohit was picked ahead of fellow batsman Ajinkya Rahane, but he has failed to live up expectations.
“I look at him and he is technically sound. But the first thing that goes wrong in your game is your defense, and his (Sharma’s) defensive skills are letting him down,” Jones told PTI as quoted by the Deccan Herald. “In Test cricket, 70 percent of batting is about your defence and in one-dayers it is 40 percent.
“So his defensive skills are letting him down. He has got to take pride in his defensive skills like Sunil Gavaskar, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and even Virat Kohli.”
India have already lost the Test series as they trail 2-0 going into the third and final Test in Johannesburg on January 24, but Jones feels tough tours like this can help India with their team selection.
“You need to have these kind of tours to sort out your composition, to find out whether they are good enough or not,” he said. “So may be there has been too much reliance on his (Sharma’s) ODI form but all in all you have to have a series like this to find out if they are good enough.
“If he misses out in the next series, Ravi (Shastri) and Kohli can say ‘we gave you the opportunity’.”
Many have attributed India’s struggles in South Africa to the fact that they opted not to play a warm-up game. But, Jones has quite a different view on the matter.
“The modern-day schedules are such that often there is no time for a warm-up game,” he said. “But why should you only rely on that? I have spoken to the likes of VVS Laxman, who tell me he, Dravid and Tendulkar used to start preparing three months before touring Australia.
“Dealing with the bouncing ball and so on. So the players have got to take the responsibility individually (when it comes to preparation).
“I think the structuring of the series (with no warm-up games) is such that once you lose the first Test, it is very tough to come back. You don’t have many teams winning overseas anyway. I was researching on this, probably South Africa is the only team which has done well overseas in the past 10-15 years.
“You can be a hit harsh but it (series loss in SA) is not the be all and end all. No doubt Kohli and Ravi would have wanted things to go a bit better. South Africa is a hard place to win in. Australia have won on their last two tours there.”
While India have underperformed throughout their tour of South Africa, Jones believes they will be pushed to their limits when they travel to England later this year.
“Kohli can only make so many runs, you need other players to stand up,” he said. “[The] England tour is going to be interesting. There are some question marks about the guys’ techniques. They can play well. Like Tendulkar and Dravid, you got guys like Rahane and Pujara who stay side on and watch the ball late.
“And you got bowlers now who can bowl over 140 kmph and swing the ball. So I would like to judge this Indian team by how they do over the next two-three years. They have had just one bad tour.”
Meanwhile, when asked about India captain Virat Kohli and Australia skipper Steve Smith, Jones admitted that Kohli is his favourite player despite Smith having a better record.
Kohli averages 53.51 with the bat after 65 Tests, while Smith averages 63.75 after 61 Tests.
“His (Smith’s) numbers are better and he is different,” Jones said. ” All the greats are geniuses and they are different. Bradman was different, he played with split grips and so do Kohli and Smith. You don’t teach them how to play with split grips.
“Smith reads the length better than most, he has got an eye like a dead fish. How do you teach that? And my favourite Kohli is bringing in the traditional style of play in all three formats but Smith is different. It is okay to be different.”