After seeing Rohit getting ‘bored’ at No.4-5, Shastri decided to make ‘Hitman’ opener

When Ravi Shastri saw Rohit Sharma getting “bored" in the middle-order in 2019, the then coach pushed him to the top order, a move that proved to be a master stroke and reshaped the ‘Hitman’ career in traditional format.

Shastri became India’s head coach in 2017 before handing over the reins to Rahul Dravid in 2021, and during his eventful four-year term, Rohit became one of the most devastating Test openers that India produced.

“Batting at four, five, this guy used to get bored. Then I started dwelling on the fact, why is he so successful in one-day cricket? He likes to be out there early," Shastri said in the ICC Review.

“I said, if he can go out there and do it, he has got enough time on his hands to play the quicks. He’s got the shots against the quicks, to take them on. The field is up, so Test cricket might be a honeymoon for him if he starts embracing it," added Shastri.

Rohit recently called time on his Test career after an illustrious career spanning 67 games, which saw him score 4,301 runs including 12 centuries and 18 half-tons.

Shastri said he thought about utilising Rohit as a Test opener during the World Cup in 2019 when he smashed five centuries and finished the tournament as the leading run-getter with 648 runs at an average of 81.

The former all-rounder said that he discussed the idea of pushing Rohit as an opener with then captain Virat Kohli. Rohit was an instant success, hitting twin centuries in his first Test at the top of the order against South Africa.

“He’d batted enough at five and six and he wasn’t here and he wasn’t there," said Shastri about Rohit, who hit nine of his 12 centuries from that point onwards.

“He would get his 20s or 30s and throw it away. (I thought) let’s put him under pressure and send him up (the order). And I remember telling him in the West Indies ‘we want you to open’.

“This (decision) was (August) 2019, if I’m not mistaken, after that World Cup. He’d had a great World Cup, so his form was very good. And he might have thought of it for a little while, but he was OK.

“Then he came in for the first Test match and he opened the innings and he got a hundred. If I’m not mistaken, he got a big 100 in that first innings and then he didn’t look back because then he seemed to enjoy it," added Shastri.

Shastri said that Rohit dedicated a lot of time to his technique and the soft hands and it helped him become a successful opener.

“He figured it out and, what I must say, he worked a lot on his technique because I thought his best batting was in England where you really got to play a little differently and especially he had to play with soft hands and could leave (the ball) a lot.

“And he worked on it, which was very good. So, suddenly from nowhere, he was setting up games for you."

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