It’s a good sign, said Rohit Sharma after day 2 on a question related to Virat Kohli and number 3 position.
Virat Kohli was dismissed on a duck in the Bengaluru Test match against New Zealand, in which he returned to the pavilion for the 38th time without opening an account in international cricket, combining all three formats. Kohli has now surpassed Harbhajan Singh in this matter. The record of being dismissed on duck in international cricket for the most times for India is in the name of Zaheer Khan, who has returned to the pavilion for zero 43 times.
He has been fielded seven times in Test history so far, in which he does not have a single half-century to his name. The last time he batted at this position was in 2016, when the innings ended for just four runs against the West Indies. Virat’s bat speaks fiercely at number four. At this position, he is the highest run-scorer for the India after Sachin Tendulkar. Sachin has scored 13492 runs batting at number four in Tests. Kohli is at number two with 7355 runs. With 5081 runs, Gundappa Viswanath is the third highest number on this number.
“Yes, he (Rahul) is a local boy. So he has to bat at 3? (laughs). After a long time, KL Rahul has found a spot at No. 6. We want to make him bat there. The experienced players are the ones who have to take up more responsibility. This time, it was Virat. He was the one who was ready to do that,”Rohit said in the press conference after the day two.
“We asked him whether he could bat at No. 3. Sarfaraz, we also wanted to give him the position that he usually bats at 4, 5 and 6. We didn’t want to change Rishabh and KL. Hence, Sarfaraz went at No. 4 and Virat batted at No. 3. It’s a good sign. Players coming up and taking responsibility and owning up the challenge. It’s a good sign.”