“He scores a century whenever you need it the most” – Aakash Chopra lauds Rohit Sharma’s hundred

Former Indian Test opener Aakash Chopra hailed Rohit Sharma for scoring a fine century on the opening day of the third Test match at the Niranjan Shah Stadium, Rajkot on Thursday. Rohit decided to bat first after winning the toss but the hosts found themselves under the cosh at 33-3, losing Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill and Rajat Patidar early.

Rohit Sharma, who wasn’t amongst the runs in the first two matches, was troubled by Mark Wood’s pace and Anderson’s accurate line and length. However, the Indian captain was ready to fight it out with an inexperienced batting line-up to follow.

Rohit scored a fine knock of 131 runs, his 11th Test century and his eighth as an opener as he added a crucial alliance of 204 runs with Ravindra Jadeja. The Indian skipper scored 14 fours and three maximums in his brilliant knock as he batted at the top of his game.

Aakash Chopra said on his YouTube Channel, “Among the fantastic performances, we should repeatedly talk about Rohit Sharma because there was pressure. You are the most experienced in your team and you saw three players getting out from the other end when the score was only 33. So the captain had to play.”

“He played Jimmy Anderson cautiously and gave a lot of respect to Mark Wood as well. He accelerated calculatedly against the spinners. The way he played and the time at which it came – one of the finest Test hundreds of his career. He scores a century whenever you need it the most,” the former India opener added.

Ravindra Jadeja also went on to score 110 runs on the opening day of the third Test. Jadeja was promoted to number five in the batting order after India lost three early wickets and he was able to grab his chance with both hands.

“So Rohit Sharma was a fantastic performer and so was Ravindra Jadeja. Jaddu was promoted in the batting order. He was sent at 33/3 and Jadeja’s story these days is that he plays very cautiously. He doesn’t get troubled while defending. He doesn’t have any difficulties against the bouncers.”

“It was the first century partnership from India in this series and that too became a double-century partnership. Jadeja slowed down in the end. He went into a shell slightly and because of that he probably called for a non-existent single and then said no,” he stated.

India have two early wickets on the second day’s morning and are currently 346-7 with debutant Dhruv Jurel and Ravichandran Ashwin at the crease.