‘Challenge would be to get your mental state…’ – Sunil Gavaskar talks about Rohit Sharma’s next challenge in upcoming Test series vs SA

Rohit Sharma and Co. are all gearing up to win the Test series against South Africa, which is slated to take place on December 26 in Centurion. Notably, KL Rahul-led Team India emerged successful in winning the ODI series by 2-1; however, Suryakumar Yadav-led Team India also levelled up the series by 1-1 in the shortest format of the game. Meanwhile, former India cricketer Sunil Gavaskar has opened up about India’s captain’s next challenge in the upcoming series.

The well-known cricket commentator affirms that the first challenge will be the mental challenge in the upcoming Test series. In addition, the legendary cricketer talks about Rohit Sharma’s role in the ODI World Cup 2023, where he played an attacking role and scored a plethora of runs in the powerplays throughout the whole tournament.

However, the former India skipper feels that the 36-year-old skipper has to change his approach to batting now as he needs to think about batting the whole day in the Test game. The former batting legend feels Rohit Sharma should bat a lot to score an unbeaten 180 or 190 the whole day, which will help India cross 300 runs on Day 1 of the Test game.

Rohit Sharma will have to change the approach completely for Test cricket: Sunil Gavaskar

“First and foremost, the challenge would be to get your mental state into a Test match situation. He has been batting in the ODI format where he had decided that he was going to be playing the attacking role and try and score as many runs as possible in the first 10 overs of field restrictions,” Sunil Gavaskar said on Star Sports.

“He will have to change the approach completely for Test cricket because he will have to think in terms of batting the whole day. If he bats the whole day, then, clearly with the range of shots that he has got, he will be able to end up with 180 or 190 not out at the end of the day and India will be 300-plus,” he added further.