India’s batting coach Vikram Rathour on Saturday attributed Rohit Sharma’s success as Test opener, in the ongoing series, to mental adjustments.
“He is such an experienced player. I don’t think you need to change anything with his technique. The only adjustment I think he had to make was his game plans,” Rathour told reporters after the first day’s proceedings.
“I always believed he is too good a player not to be playing in any format. It was a good call to make him to open. With the amount of runs he has scored, he has settled the issue for the time being,” Rathour added.
“Somebody of his experience and the kind of cricket he plays, if he starts coming good top of the order, it changes everything for the Indian team, even when you’re touring.”
Rohit looked tentative early on and was given LBW on seven by umpire Richard Illingworth, but survived following a successful review, which showed a faint inside-edge.
“In Tests, you need to play through those tough spells that you will get. I think he’s doing that well in this series. Once he’s set, he’s a phenomenal player, we all know that he can really punish you.”
Rohit started to break free towards the end of first session when he pulled Anrich Nortje for the first of his four sixes, while Ajinkya Rahane too came on his own in a difficult second session for the visitors.
“Ajinkya showed great intent today. Whenever he bats with this intent, he looks a really good player. As I said earlier also, they bowled in good areas initially and there was help in the wicket, so Rohit had some problem early on.
“Of course, as a batsman, you need to survive that time, which Rohit did really well. Anybody will look uncomfortable because those were tough conditions.”