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With half his career over, Rohit Sharma at peace with Test record

By his own admission, Rohit Sharma now doesn’t fret over his Test selection and just wants to enjoy the remainder of his playing career.

cricket Updated: May 28, 2018 21:16 IST Rohit Sharma led Mumbai Indians in IPL 2018 but the team could not qualify for the playoffs.(AFP)

A formidable force in white ball cricket, India’s limited overs vice-captain Rohit Sharma seems to have made peace with his below-par Test record, now that “half of his playing career” is over.

By his own admission, Rohit now doesn’t fret over his Test selection and just wants to enjoy the remainder of his playing career.

“There’s limited time you have as a player and I have finished almost half of it. There’s no point in spending the remaining half thinking whether I’ll be picked or not. I am going forward with the theory of ‘whatever time I have make it count’,”said Rohit about his stop-start Test career.

Due to his inconsistent performances with the bat in South Africa, Rohit has been dropped from India’s squad for the one-off Test against Afghanistan in Bengaluru starting June 14.

But Rohit doesn’t have any complain and said he is now at such a stage of his career where he can’t thing about selection.

“For me, I am not at a stage to worry about whether I’ll be picked or not. I need to enjoy my game. The first five-six years of my career, it was all about “oh, will I be picked? Will I play”! Now it’s all about enjoying the game. These things keeps adding pressure on you. Instead, it’s best to enjoy yourself in what you do and give your best,” he said.

“There has to be time and a slot available for it. The seniors - Sachin, Rahul, VVS and Sourav - were all playing then so we had to wait. After a point, I realised there’s no point thinking about it (selection). No point in thinking about what the selectors are doing and all,” Rohit added.

Asked Rohit whether he was surprised by his axing from the Test squad against Afghanistan, he replied: “I was not. As I said, I can only keep enjoying my game. There’s no time to regret about anything. I’ve had enough time to regret in the past. We have got big events coming up, so best to focus on it.”

Rohit also didn’t have the best of IPL this season while leading last year’s champions Mumbai Indians, failing to take his side to the play-offs.

“I started off well with a few innings and then towards the end when it was needed the most, it didn’t happen, so that was disappointing,” he said.

He was particularly critical about his short selection.

“Shot selection,” said Rohit when asked his area of concern with his batting in the just-concluded IPL.

“You have to back yourself to do that. I backed myself but it didn’t come off. When it comes off, you win games; when it doesn’t, you lose. I have been in that situation too often,” he added.

“By no means. As a child, all I dreamt of was to play Test cricket and that dream will never be over. Nobody can take away my game or what I think about the game,” an agitated Rohit said.

“Selectors can do what is best in their control, players will do what is in their control. It’s important to keep focus. When I started playing cricket, there was no white ball cricket. We used to play in school, in age-group cricket with red ball. White ball came much later. As a child, you only saw red ball cricket.”

Rohit termed Mumbai Indians’ performance this season as “inconsistent” and said it is now time to reflect upon the year and come out stronger in the next edition of the tournament.

“I thought we were a little inconsistent in whatever we did as a team. We should have put out hands up when needed, including myself, but that didn’t happen, so that was disappointing,” he said.

First Published: May 28, 2018 20:23 IST