Rohit Sharma will lead the Indian Test team out for the first time in his career when India take Sri Lanka on in Mohali. Rohit Sankar writes that it could be the ultimate test for his topsy turvy Test career, but also one that could propel him to greatness.

It’s Virat Kohli’s 100th Test match, a century so rare that only 70 among the 3,074 Test cricketers so far have reached the milestone. The cameras, though, no longer pan the breadth and width of him as much as they used to. The limelight would be shared by another man, Rohit Sharma, who in the last four months, has turned into the most important man in Indian cricket.

Chetan Sharma, the chairman of the selection committee, casually called Rohit “the No.1 cricketer in the country” when announcing him as India’s permanent Test captain. Even at 34, with just three red-ball professional matches as captain (all in the Ranji Trophy for Mumbai in 2012), and with fitness not always on his side, Rohit is firmly the “unanimous” choice.

Rohit’s appointment is seen as a transition phase for India – Chetan Sharma alludes to the same – with the next leader, for which a trio of players line up in no particular order, not ready quite yet. But he’s suddenly displaced the effervescent Kohli from the spotlight. The camera follows him everywhere. Rohit screaming at a fielder being out of place or a catch being dropped is all over newspaper headlines. The reactions aren’t quite as dramatic and exaggerated as Kohli’s, but they are very instinctive. It’s what you would do, what your friends would do. The connect is instant.

There are, of course, the five big IPL trophies standing as testimony to his captaincy tales. He’s led India to 15 successive international wins. The last loss came in 2019. “Be careful to shake hands with Rohit Sharma these days. Anything he touches turns to gold,” tweeted a former player. He isn’t wrong. Since reeling off five centuries in England in the 2019 ODI World Cup, Rohit has hardly put a foot wrong.

Be careful to shake hands with Rohit Sharma these days. Anything he touches turns to gold. Shreyas at No.3, rotation of players, bowling changed. Every move, a master stroke. #Goldentouch @ImRo45

— Mohammad Kaif (@MohammadKaif) February 27, 2022

The desire to see Rohit Sharma blooming in Test cricket is one most fans carried in their hearts for years. He was a limited-overs behemoth. The ultra-talented, eye-pleasing batter whom purists heaped praise on. There was no way Rohit wouldn’t relish Test cricket. And he did, briefly. Hundreds in his debut Test in Kolkata and the next innings in Mumbai came after a six-year wait since making his international debut. The second of those came in Sachin Tendulkar’s last Test. Surely, it was a sign from the Gods? It wasn’t to be. Not yet, at least.

His home record remained stellar, but as the years passed on, his weakness was exposed away from home. The Test career took a backseat with him turning into this giant, smashing-double-tons-for-fun ODI beast. Ravi Shastri named him ‘Hitman’, and the world carried it forward. Rohit in whites remained a forlorn thought, wrapped in cotton wool and hid in the darkest corner of the cupboard. It was still there, though.

It wasn’t just the hardcore fans who wanted him to succeed. The men who mattered wanted it too. It’s perhaps why Rohit was given countless chances, picked over Ajinkya Rahane in 2018 in South Africa when Rahane was in his prime in overseas Tests. MSK Prasad detailed a conversation between him, head coach at the time Ravi Shastri and Virat Kohli after the 2019 ODI World Cup in a Cricbuzz interview. The question was “how we could bring him [Rohit] into the side”. That’s not how usual selection meetings go.

Rohit returned as an opener in Test cricket, probably his final chance. And he knew it. The world knew that it would expose his weakness against the moving ball, one that he’d inevitably face in New Zealand, Australia, and England, India’s back-to-back overseas assignments. He started with a bang: two hundreds and a double ton in the home series against South Africa. But what is an Indian opener if you don’t walk the talk in SENA [South Africa, England, New Zealand, and Australia] countries?

Rohit missed the New Zealand tour with an injury, but provides solid starts in Australia, in the World Test Championship final at Lord’s, going on to script his first away ton at The Oval. A fresh technique, the same positive intent, and a hunger to stay in the middle longer were the cornerstone of his success. All of this coincided with Virat Kohli’s century drought and Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara falling off their perch. All of a sudden, Rohit was India’s saviour in whites, holding together a paper-thin batting line-up against some of the best attacks in world cricket. When he missed the South Africa tour and India lost the Tests, fans bemoaned Rohit’s absence.

Virat Kohli’s resignation put Rohit Sharma and Rahul Dravid in charge to build a new future. Fans hailed it the ‘new era’. Indian cricket has supposedly never been in safer hands. The world trusts Rahul Dravid: he has no haters. India’s lack of ICC trophies and Rohit Sharma’s record with the Mumbai Indians make him the obvious candidate as leader to end the trophy drought. The partnership is ice and ice, but there’s a fire billowing too. Rohit has to do it in Tests too, a format he only recently actually, truly made it in. That, with a batting group that hasn’t quite clicked in sync for long.

The challenge isn’t quite stiff, though. In fact, the stars seem to have aligned in perfect order for Rohit to leave the game as a Test legend. His next few assignments are Sri Lanka and Australia at home, and Bangladesh away from home. Rohit’s home record – an average of 79.5 – is one of the best ever in Test history. Sceptics might still challenge that Rohit the opener hasn’t quite faced quality attacks for long enough in tough away conditions, but in limited sample size, his record is compelling.

As a leader, he has big shoes to fill in this format, but again, how long would this transition period last? Would he likely be around to face and lead the team on three back-to-back away tours? Kohli has taken the team to unseen heights. Rohit might not quite need to do that, yet could walk out as a legend, one who has a record home average, a spotless record as multi-format captain, and a revamped career in whites many didn’t quite visualise.