Rohit Sharma isn't casual about his cricket: Rahul Dravid

Rohit Sharma weathered the storm and then, gave in to temptation. For much of the morning session, the Mumbai batsman kept the disciplined Australian attack at bay. A strokeplayer, he kept his cool and stayed himself even as Australia tried to keep control of the game. Nathan Lyon, in particular, kept tossing the ball up but maintained strict control over his line and length. The Aussie fast bowlers also gave nothing away – sticking to a line outside the off-stump – but Lokesh Rahul and Rohit were determined to not throw it away. They dourly defended everything that came their way. [caption id=“attachment_2035679” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Australia’s Nathan Lyon, left, runs past India’s Rohit Sharma. AP[/caption] Then Rohit got to his fifty. It has taken him 132 balls and included 5 fours and two sixes. Immediately, he tried to break the shackles a bit. His method, though, was wrong. A pre-meditated sweep shot proved to be his downfall. Had he stayed up and tried to drive the ball, he would have been fine. But instead he went for the sweep and got an under edge on to the stumps. He was dismissed after making 53 off 133 balls at a SR of 39.84. Almost everyone jumped in to criticise Rohit but he would some good, solid support in former India skipper Rahul Dravid. “I have played with Rohit Sharma and I don’t think he is casual about his cricket. He may seem casual but he isn’t. He has got talent, yes – he can play shots. But building an innings, making it a big one is a talent too and he needs to work on that. It was a good innings today and even yesterday – he came in when a wicket fell at 0 and then kept it together. But I think we need to see a lot more from Rohit before we can talk about him being the permanent No.3,” said Dravid on StarSports. “He has done it in domestic cricket. He averages almost 60 in first-class cricket – so it is not like he has come into the side without scoring runs. Shaun Marsh for example averages 35. Rohit isn’t like that. He has a top score of 309 but it just hasn’t come together at the international level. People start losing patience with you after you have been around for a while and even though Rohit hasn’t played a lot of Test cricket – he has been around for almost seven years now,” Dravid further added. Rohit’s innings will win him some time but he needs to make it count. A fifty at number three isn’t good enough. Former Australia batsman Damien Martyn thought that this will go down as a missed opportunity. “He will look at this innings and tell himself that he should have gone on to get a big hundred. It is a good batting track and it is slow.”