India was scheduled to play a grand total of three Test matches from March to October this year. The first of these ended in three days here on Sunday and the second is scheduled to begin this Saturday in Bengaluru. The third is the postponed Test against England from 2021, to be held during the English summer.
For a transitory side that the Indian Test team currently is, the sample size is too small to offer definitive trends. But what they can provide are cues for the future, of which there were a few in the crushing win over Sri Lanka.
One of these relates to the No. 3 slot. Back in 2015, when Virat Kohli embarked on his first full-fledged tour as captain, to Sri Lanka, he had initially pencilled in Rohit Sharma for the job.
Prototype
A No. 3 batter is often seen as a prototype of the team, someone who gives the innings direction. In Rohit, Kohli saw an “impact player”, in line with his attacking vision.
In a curious twist, when Rohit had a similar decision to make in the absence of Cheteshwar Pujara ahead of his debut Test as captain in Mohali, Hanuma Vihari was picked over the more attack-minded Shubman Gill and Shreyas Iyer.
In fairness, Vihari, despite coming across as a cautious, dogged batter, is also capable of scoring at a quicker pace, as his List-A strike-rate of 82.39 (3001 runs) suggests. In 21 of his 24 Test innings, Vihari has batted at No. 5 or lower, and all but one of them abroad, not giving him much of an opportunity to explore his batting.
Mohali was the first time a team management trusted his ability as a frontline batter, a faith Vihari is capable of repaying.
“We are not so certain [about the future], but at the moment it is Vihari and he did pretty well,” Rohit said at the end of the first Test.
“He will continue there [No. 3] in the next Test as well. It is important to give these guys confidence. We are very open-minded as a team management... so whatever suits the team best, we will do that.”
Faith in Jadeja
Another cricketer who Rohit said will be trusted to do more is Ravindra Jadeja. While Jadeja was all along a capable batter, the unbeaten 175 in the opening Test made everyone sit up and take notice. It is difficult to see how much higher than No. 7 Jadeja can bat in this Test line-up, but Rohit felt there was untapped potential.
“He’s hungry to get runs,” Rohit said. “He wants to take the responsibility and challenge. The example was there in the T20 series against Sri Lanka [when he batted up the order].
“I want to use Jadeja a lot more with the bat. We all know about his bowling, his fielding, and now I hope I get the opportunity to use his batting more. We have got a lot of young players who we need to look at also. [But] Jadeja seems to be right up there, in my mind at least.”
