Rohit Sharma Gets Valuable Advice From Childhood Coach To Play Domestic Cricket For Test Success

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India captain Rohit Sharma is going through a rough patch, with his struggles highlighted during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, where he scored just 31 runs across five innings at an average of 6.20.

His form has been concerning over the last three series, where he managed only 164 runs in 15 innings at an average of 10.93, including just one half-century.

Despite this, his childhood coach, Dinesh Lad, has expressed support, emphasizing that slumps in form are common for players.

Lad also revealed Rohit's two major career goals before retiring: winning the World Test Championship (WTC) and an ODI World Cup. Rohit's hopes of achieving the WTC title in the 2023-2025 cycle ended after India's 1-3 loss to Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. With the next WTC final in 2027, it is uncertain if he will still be active in Test cricket by then.

"I think Rohit has only two goals: first, to win the World Test Championship and second, to win the ODI World Cup. If he wanted, he would have retired from all formats (after the T20 World Cup title), but he only retired from T20 cricket," Lad told IANS.

He has also advised him to go back to domestic cricket so that he can prepare well for Test matches.

"He is not the only cricketer who was struggling to score runs. He should play one or two domestic games to prepare for Test matches. Because of T20 cricket, the mindset of batters has changed. He is a technically sound cricketer, and against England last year he was scoring good runs. If we win, people call Rohit the best captain, but when we lose, people say he doesn't know captaincy," he added.

However, the 37-year-old remains focused on winning the ODI World Cup in 2027. Having already secured two T20 World Cup titles, Rohit is determined to add the ODI title to his achievements, especially after narrowly missing out in the 2023 final.