Former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar feels India mustn’t think about beating Australia 4-0 in the upcoming Test series. Notably, India and Australia are all set to take on each other in a five-match Test series beginning from November 22. The Rohit Sharma –led side needs to beat Australia in four Test matches to qualify for the final of the World Test Championship (WTC) on their own.
Hence, the series as well the scoreline holds tremendous importance for India to keep their WTC final hopes alive. However, Manjrekar feels India shouldn’t think too much about it and take one step at a time and mentioned how the first two Tests in Perth and Adelaide are going to challenge them massively. The former batter spoke about the importance Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma are going to play.
“4-0, a distant dream, just take one step at a time and the first couple of steps, which is Perth and the next one in Adelaide are going to be India’s toughest tests. We need Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, one of them, to have a great series. Problem for India is that the bowling which has been their great strength in the last couple of years, Shami missing,” said Manjrekar on Star Sports.
Virat and Rohit’s poor form in 2024
In the ongoing year, Kohli has scored 250 runs from six Tests at an average of 22.72 with just one half-century to his name. On the other hand, Rohit has scored 588 runs from 11 Tests (21 innings) at an average of 29.40 with two hundreds and as many fifties. Rohit had a miserable recent home season as the India skipper scored just 133 runs from five matches at an average of 13.30 with one fifty.
The duo will be desperate to bounce back in Australia as India fight hard to keep their World Test Championship (WTC) hopes alive. Kohli in particular loves batting in Australia averaging a staggering 54.08 having scored 1352 runs from 13 matches. The former India captain will be eager to find his mojo back in his favourite conditions and help his team complete a hat-trick of series wins in Australia.
