Rohit Sharma should sacrifice his position for India’s future: Cheteshwar Pujara

India captain Rohit Sharma should bat in the middle order in the Brisbane Test match, said Cheteshwar Pujara. Speaking ahead of the 3rd Test, set to start on December 14, Pujara argued that Rohit should sacrifice his position thinking about the future of Indian cricket.

Sharma, who had skipped the first Test match of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024/25 had a terrible outing in the pink ball Test match at Adelaide, scoring a total of 9 runs across two innings. Rohit got consistently troubled on his off and middle stumps and lost his wicket to Scott Boland and Pat Cummins.

Speaking on ESPNcricinfo, Pujara asked Rohit to work on his technique and argued that a bigger front-foot stride might help him in Australia. Pujara also advocated that Rohit should sacrifice his opener’s spot for KL Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal, thinking about the future of the Indian team.

“He has not scored a lot of runs against New Zealand and he did not start well in Australia, so there is a bit of pressure on him to perform. But someone like him who knows his game will just have to be more positive, and work a bit more on his footwork. If he has a slightly bigger stride, it will help him,” Cheteshwar Pujara said in a video by ESPNcricinfo in the build-up to the Brisbane Test match.

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“The stump line has been troubling him a lot. He has been getting out bowled and LBW, which is a bit of concern for him. That’s the line he will have to work on in the nets, because in the balls outside off stump, he is looking more comfortable. I think he should continue to bat at No.6. We are looking at India’s future, KL Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal. They batted really well in the 1st Test match, Shubman also is likely to bat at No.3. We should think about the long term and that’s why I think that Rohit should continue to bat at No.6,” he further added.

KL Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal were the stars of India’s first Test match of the series, hitting 200 runs between them. That allowed India to dominate Australia in Perth and secure a massive 295-run win. In the second Test match however, India were drubbed by Australia, as they lost the match by 10 wickets, due to twin batting failures.

The third Test match of the series will be played at the iconic Gabba. The game will start at 5:50 AM IST on 14 December.

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