At home, Rohit is the best bet

January, 2021. Late into the evening in Sydney, Rohit Sharma was looking good. In fact, if we’re totally honest, he was purring. Having just brought up his half-century, India were 92/1 in nominal pursuit of 407, but with their sights set on a draw that would keep the series alive. The pitch was flat, the chance was there, and Sharma’s clinical elegance was in full flow. The stage was set, the lights dimmed, the opportunity there to be grasped.

And then, he was gone. A shortish ball from Pat Cummins was pulled deep towards the rope where Mitchell Starc took the catch. It was a shot which angered many, the question of his temperament once again raised, his long-form ability scrutinised. It was fair enough, in some respects. His average in Australia this winter, 32.25, was nothing to write home about, while equally being no huge concern. And yet here we are, three Tests into another big series with Sharma topping the averages, having registered India’s only top-order century, and generally having put on an absolute clinic in how to bat in difficult conditions. Scores of 161, 26, 66 and 25* are pretty solid at any time in a player’s career, but given the borderline existential crisis those watching this series have indulged in over the last two pitches, it’s a minor miracle. While everyone else has been slipping and sliding on the ice, Sharma has skated around serenely, with a gentle backdrop of classical music accompanying his calm control. His false shot percentage, just 14%, is bettered only by Kohli, who found that control by removing attacking intent. But that’s not Sharma’s style. Yet these last two Tests haven’t seen him rained with the compliments you’d imagine.

There are two main reasons for this. One is that, to some extent, he’s had the best of conditions to play in. That first day in Chennai wasn’t noticeably easier for batting than the second, but the first few hours of play were a touch more typical. It was during that period that

Sharma made hay, scoring 80 runs before lunch on Day 1, a tally that only two Indians (Virender Sehwag and Shikhar Dhawan) have outstripped since 2006. He cleared out the safe before England even realised there was a heist on the cards.

The other reason, perhaps is that we have almost come to expect this level of brilliance from Sharma in India. Much has been made of Sharma being moved to open as the big change. It isn’t. The love affair for Sharma is not the position, but the place itself. Sharma is in love with India. His average at home, a vast 81.05, is not just the highest for an Indian at home. It’s not just the highest average for anyone in India. It’s the third highest average for a single player, in a single country, in Test history. Sharma isn’t really that much better as an opener than he was in the middle. Batting in the middle order in home Tests, he averages 85.44, still higher than the 77.45 he averages opening the batting. His conversion rate is a key component of this. Of all the Indian batsmen to make more than five centuries in home Tests, only six have more hundreds than fifties: Virat Kohli, Murali Vijay, Vijay Hazare, Polly Umrigar, and Sharma himself.

That away record does loom. The difference between his average at home and his average away, 54.05, is the highest of any player in the history of the game to play 20 innings both on the road, and in their own country. It goes without saying that this is largely a consequence of Sharma’s hometown brilliance than an exceptionally poor record away from home. But there are still plenty of questions to be asked. Even if those questions aren’t accusations, or criticisms, but just...why can’t he do it away from home?

Maybe there’s a weakness in his strength. He’s played 125 pulls in Tests, dismissed four times, at an average of 67.50. In India, that average is 157; outside India it’s 37.66. And yet that’s not it, because away, Sharma nails the short ball as well as ever. He averages 74 against it, and scores at quicker than 5rpo. This isn’t a case of a player being shocked by pace and bounce.

No, the issue is against fuller deliveries, that in-between length. Against these deliveries, outside of India, he averages 18.42. What’s more, Sharma’s primary issue in Tests, has been the nip-backer. Against deliveries seaming back into him, he’s averaged 11.40.

With this sort of analysis, the clincher is usually a piece of evidence that either lays a path to the player overcoming their weakness. Yet here that isn’t the case. Sharma struggles with the moving ball, and the ball moves less in India. Done. But let’s not focus on the negatives, or even try to just subtly frame them as a challenge, a point to be proven. Sharma’s brilliance in India is historic. He will likely not sustain it, because almost nobody in history has—nobody in the modern, more widely competitive era of the game has done so. But for now, his record at home is something beautiful.

We place too much expectation on white ball legends to nail the red ball. Maybe it’s the fact that our brains are so attuned to watching them dominate that we sit, Pavolovian drool pouring out of our mouths when they walk to the crease, unconcerned about the format. The challenges are different. As are the challenges of cricket at home, and cricket away from home. With both, we should be careful not to let technical, sporting reasons bleed over into moral criticisms, complaints about character.