Batting great Sunil Gavaskar feels that Rohit Sharma has a great opportunity in South Africa to make up for the loss in the World Cup final. India have not won a Test series on the Proteas soil and the onus will be on skipper Rohit to produce something special to end the drought.
The last time India travelled to South Africa in 2021-22, they won the first Test but failed to continue the momentum and lost the series after defeats in the last two matches. Rohit was not part of the team on that tour and missed it due to an injury.
Recently, Rohit led India in ODI World Cup where they suffered a defeat in the final after a dominating 9 matches prior to that. The hosts failed to match the intensity of Australia in the all-important clash and missed the chance to become three-time champions.
However, 1983 World Cup-winning star Gavaskar feels that Rohit has the opportunity to make up for the big loss by winning the Test series on the Proteas soil.
“Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli have really been at the peak of their powers in the last 6-8 months. Rohit is going to be key for India in the Test series. Rohit will have a big role to play to set up the batters coming after him at three, four and five. Whatever happens, this is Rohit Sharma’s opportunity to make up for the World Cup final loss,” said Gavaskar on Star Sports.
Meanwhile, Rohit took a break from the ongoing T20I series against Australia and the white-ball matches against South Africa.
Under Rohit’s captaincy, India have witnessed some heartbreaking defeats in ICC tournaments this year. The team lost the ICC World Test Championship final against Australia earlier this year at The Oval. India lost that match by 209 runs as Travis Head smashed 163 runs for his side for the victory. The Men in Blue made a solid comeback in the Asia Cup later, beating Sri Lanka in the final by 10 wickets to secure continental glory. They looked in prime form to bag their third-ever World Cup trophy but once again succumbed to Australia in the final at the Narendra Modi Stadium. India had dominated the tournament on all fronts, winning the most number of games.
