Rohit Sharma, Naman Ojha falter when it mattered most

Rohit Sharma threw his wicket away after scoring a sublime 50 against Sri Lanka. (Source: AP)

Rohit Sharma was fighting to cement his place at No. 5, a position he has been handed by tweaking Ajinkya Rahane’s position in the batting order. Naman Ojha was fighting to make an impression at this level. Both flattered to deceive.

Rohit first: he looked to be in sublime touch. He came to the crease on Sunday when India were reeling at seven for three in their second innings. Dhammika Prasad’s and Nuwan Pradeep’s early bursts had the game on a knife’s edge. Another wicket and Sri Lanka would have had the upper hand.

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Rohit carried his customary nonchalance to the middle. A flick off his hips got him going. A pull to long leg two deliveries hence was even better. The pivot was excellent. His batting didn’t have the uncertainties of someone almost on the brink. Rangana Herath came on and Rohit danced down the track to dispatch him over wide mid-off. He finished the day on 14 not out off 10 balls and then continued this morning from where he had left off.

Angelo Mathews’s decision to give only two overs to Pradeep upfront bordered on the appalling. Rohit and Virat Kohli gleefully accepted the favour and started to put together a partnership. The former was scoring at a strike-rate of close to 70. He was taking the game away from the hosts. Fifty came off just 71 balls and everyone present at the ground applauded. “Very good innings, but the job is only half done,” Sunil Gavaskar sounded a note of caution on TV. Two balls later Rohit was out. A compulsive puller, he couldn’t control the shot this time and got a top edge to deep backward square. Once again, he threw it away.

Rohit’s Test career had started off with back-to-back hundreds against West Indies in November 2013. He hasn’t scored another one since. Today, he scored his fourth half-century in the longer format, an important one in the context of the game and also from his personal point of view. Then again, it was another case of wasting an opportunity to convert a half-ton into a big score. On a surface where every other batsman except Cheteshwar Pujara in the first innings struggled, Rohit was dominating the bowling. He makes batting look so easy when in form. But the hunger seems to be lacking.

Naman Ojha has taken to Test cricket like a duck to water. Those who’ve seen him over the years in domestic cricket shouldn’t be surprised. He’s another one like Wriddhiman Saha whose career coincided with MS Dhoni. At 32 years of age, time is not on his side. But Ojha had the chance to become a hero on his Test debut. He fell prey to poor shot selections in both innings. If the cross-batted heave against Tharindu Kaushal in the first innings was naïve, the ugly slog against the turn off Hearth in the second was atrocious. He failed to learn from his mistake.

India’s next assignment is at home against South Africa and maybe, batting-wise, he’s a better option than Saha at No. 7, the Bengal player’s two half-centuries in this series notwithstanding. Ojha, however, must sort out his temperament.