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‘Serious technical issue’: Three moments that exposed the struggles of ageing stars
Adelaide: Steve Smith strangled down the leg side, Virat Kohli nicking off and Rohit Sharma losing his off stump.
Three moments from the Adelaide Test provided a reminder of the desperate struggle these 30-somethings are locked in.
Steve Smith walks after glancing Jasprit Bumrah down the leg side.Credit: Getty Images
With three matches remaining, the victor in the Border-Gavaskar bout may well be the team that can wring one or two more big performances out of Smith, Kohli or Rohit. All three showed familiar frailties in Adelaide, and all three are struggling to have an impact on what is likely to be one of the last big series they ever play.
For Smith, a leg glance off Jasprit Bumrah into Rishabh Pant’s gloves looked for all the world like an instance of grave misfortune. But the truth of the matter is that he has been curtailed by that very line for much of the past five years.
At 35, the question is beginning to be asked about how much the fire still burns in Smith to return to his former dominance. A looming milestone of 10,000 Test runs is widely thought to be the last mountain he ever wanted to climb as a batter.
In recent times, Smith has joined numerous teammates in developing an infatuation with golf. At one stage in training for Adelaide Oval and the pink ball, he assumed a putting stance to return a throwdown ball to Marnus Labuschagne. Golf, then, is now competing with his magnificent obsession for batting.
It helped Smith in Adelaide to see how much better the batting order functioned around him. Labuschagne, Nathan McSweeney and Usman Khawaja to a lesser extent created the foundations for a middle order assault led brazenly by Travis Head. A winning team always provides more leeway for a struggling individual or two.
The same cannot be said for Kohli and Rohit, who entering their late 30s are both battling to overcome issues of technique and confidence that were not put to rest by the former’s century against a tiring Australian attack in Perth.
When Australia’s pacemen take on Kohli, especially on a pitch with some seam movement like Adelaide, proceedings take on an extremely familiar tone. Kohli and the bowlers know exactly what the other is trying to do, and for some time now the former Indian skipper has been unable to break the cycle.
“The technique that he’s developed to counter that line outside off stump, the swinging ball, has not really made his life easier,” Former Indian batter Sanjay Manjrekar told ESPNcricinfo during the Test. “When he got that hundred in that last game I thought: ‘Let’s find out whether just the dearth of runs is contributing to the mistakes he’s making’.
Rohit Sharma and his Indian side were comprehensively outplayed in Adelaide.Credit: AP
“Now with the monkey off the back you expected a Virat Kohli who was much more relaxed and looking in better shape, but clearly, that was a problem earlier of no runs plus a technical issue. But after getting a hundred, that he was troubled by that same line shows that he’s got a serious technical issue that he just can’t find a solution to.”
Josh Hazlewood, another spectator in Adelaide, said the recent preference for Test players to want to feel the bat on the ball has made it easier to hang the ball slightly wider and await an outside edge.
“I don’t think batters are probably as patient as they were 10 years ago. They like to feel that bat on ball more,” he said. “I think the further you go in the series, you start to get those match-ups and who’s on top of who, and vice versa, and, I think it’s definitely a positive.”
For Rohit, whose last 12 Test innings have returned scores of 6, 5, 23, 8, 2, 52, 0, 8, 18, 11, 3 and 6, there are problems of multiple kinds. India’s team did not look stronger for his return, after Jasprit Bumrah led so strongly in Perth and other batters stepped up.
Then there are technical matters around adapting his footwork to cope with the moving ball, rather than assuming the power positions that made Rohit so threatening during recent white ball campaigns.
“He takes a small step forward and the bat is just sort of dangling there in a way and hoping that the ball comes and hits it,” Manjrekar said. “Rohit Sharma’s defence has been better, but we’ve also talked about how in the last couple of years there’s been so much white ball cricket and in some ways that [defensive] quality wasn’t needed.
“Now the way he looked as well when he was batting out there, the body language just exuded a complete lack of confidence and somebody who is struggling for runs.
“Rohit Sharma is clearly struggling with the defence, which is the most important thing you need in Test cricket. He doesn’t have confidence in his defence, plus the preparation is thoroughly inadequate for a man who is in this current shape.”
And while India’s former coach Ravi Shastri has argued that Rohit should lead from the front by returning to the top of the order, such a post will only heighten the technical challenges: just ask Smith.
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