Former South African cricketer Daryll Cullinan tagged Rohit Sharma as ‘overweight’ after the Indian captain’s non- performance show in Tests in recent times. The Indian skipper hasn’t been in best of form in red-ball cricket in 2024 as he struggled to find his rhythm. In 12 Tests so far in 2024, the India opener could only accumulate 597 runs at an average of 27.83, including two hundreds.

Rohit came into Australia after a dismal home season against Bangladesh and New Zealand. He missed the first Test in Perth due to the birth of his baby boy before leading the team in Adelaide. However, his plight did not ease as the ace batter could score nine in the day-night Test, en route to India’s 10-wicket loss.

Rohit was heavily criticized by Cullinan, who pointed fingers at his fitness level and deemed him unfit before comparing the Indian skipper with Virat Kohli.              

“Look at Rohit, then at Virat. Notice the difference in their physical condition. Rohit is overweight, and not a long-term cricketer anymore. Rohit is not in a good physical condition to play in a four or a five-match Test series,” Cullinan, who played 70 Tests and 138 ODIs for South Africa told InsideSport.

Will Rohit Sharma return to the top?

Following the success of Indian openers Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul in Perth, Rohit didn’t tinker with the winning combination at the top and demoted himself to No.6, for the first time after 2018. The move didn’t yield any results as Jaiswal, Rahul and Rohit failed in unison. With the series levelled at 1-1, the biggest question is will Rohit return to his usual opening position and drop Rahul in the middle-order in the third Test in Brisbane?

Experts say, the Indian captain should bat at the top as it allows him to score runs quickly. “He should return to his regular spot. We should remember why Rahul had opened. He did that because Rohit Sharma was not available for the first Test,” Gavaskar told Sports Tak.

“Now I can understand why they kept him as an opener in the second Test, he had a 200-plus partnership with Jaiswal. But now that he couldn’t score this Test, I feel Rahul should go back to No. 5 or No.6 and Rohit Sharma should open. If Rohit scores quickly in the beginning, then he can score a big century also later,” he added.