IND vs SA, 1st Test: 'Mentally, I Was Ready For It', Says Rohit Sharma On Opening Role

Rohit, along with Mayank Agarwal (84*), took India to 202/0 before stumps were called because of heavy rain

Finally, came the opportunity to open in the longer format of the game and Rohit Sharma came out with flying colours, in the very first instance. Designated as an opener for the first time in his Test career, the HITMAN showed all his class and silenced all those who questioned his selection by scoring an unbeaten 115 against South Africa. Here are the excerpts of his conversation post day 1 of the Visakhapatnam Test match. When were you told about opening the innings?

The talk was going for a long time about me opening the innings. In the West Indies, they told me clearly that it’s going to happen now. I was prepared for the past two years actually I was preparing mentally that at some stage I might have to open. So mentally I was ready for it. Opening the batting in red-ball cricket is a different ball game compared to limited overs. Of course, it’s just mentally you have to train your mind than anything else. Very clear in my mind as to what I wanted to do. There was no confusion about how I want to approach, is there any second thought coming to my mind. I was pretty clear in my head.

Many white ball openers have constantly refused to open in red ball. What made you take up this responsibility?

When you are playing international cricket, you always look for the opportunity. This is great opportunity for me to open the innings. Yes, there will be a lot of challenges ahead but I’m not focussing on all of those. It’s pretty important for me to stay in present and think about what I need to do today rather than thinking about what has happened in the past or what is going to happen in future. For any sportsperson it’s important to stay in present, think about what he wants to execute on that particular day and of course coming days. The focus has always been on that. In terms of affecting an individual, particularly me, it hasn’t. It’s a great opportunity to open the innings and you know when you start the innings for the team, there’s so much positivity, so much feel-good factor when you opening the innings.

What was the specific plan to target Piedt?

Nothing in particular. We played a few overs of both the spinners by that point and we realised that the ball is not turning much and there is not much bounce. We wanted to use our feet and get towards the ball, get closer to the ball. And then, obviously, those are my shots that I play and as I said just now, I wanted to back myself and back my game. What you saw today is pretty much about what I do. That is pretty much my batting, so sticking to my template was very important and that is pretty much what I did today.

Mindset of an opener; Good for you not to sit and wait for your chance?

I think it suits my game to just don the pads and go out and bat. The waiting game, sitting inside when I was batting at 5 or 6, I think… I won’t say that didn’t suit my batting but here, your mind is absolutely fresh, you know that you have to play the new ball. You know what the two bowlers bowling with the new ball can do. So the game plan becomes a little easier at that time. The plan is simple when you face the new ball. When you are batting at No. 6, the field placements are different, the ball is reversing, you have to score runs in front of the wicket. So you have to keep these things in my mind.