Ex-Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar has candidly said that Rohit Sharma's overall numbers would have made for a grim reading had he toured England. Manjrekar went on to comment that Rohit and Kohli are not comparable in Test cricket, given the latter is way ahead.
Although Rohit made his debut in 2013 and scored a century in his first Test appearance, he had a stop-start career in the format until 2019. He retired with 4301 runs in 67 Tests alongside 12 centuries. Kohli, meanwhile, went on to feature in 123 matches after his first Test appearance in 2011. The 36-year-old is also the most successful Indian Test skipper with 40 wins in 68 matches.
In a video uploaded on Instagram, Manjrekar stated that Rohit and Kohli can be compared in white-ball cricket but there's no argument in the red-ball format.
"Shubman Gill made a statement, India's new Test captain about how he is not going to feel the pressure of the absence of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli in the England season, in the Test series there. It's stirred up the Bee in my Bonnet, which has been there for a while. It's not so much about the statement but the fact that Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli tend to get clubbed together. We even have a term for them 'ROKO'. I can understand in white-ball cricket there is some comparison, they are comparable players. There's an argument there is as well but that's for a later time."
The veteran commentator opined that the primary metric where the comparison between the two ends is Kohli has 12 SENA centuries in Tests, while Rohit has only 1. Manjrekar also felt Rohit's average would have dropped to 30s from 40.57 had he toured England this year.
"But when it comes to red-ball cricket, Test cricket, there is absolutely no comparison between the two. I will never ever put them in the same bracket. Just to give you some numbers, so you don't have to take my word for it. When it comes to SENA countries, the true test of a Test batter, Kohli has got 12 hundreds. 30 Test hundreds is good."
"Rohit Sharma in SENA countries, just the one at The Oval in 2021. He has played over 100 innings but just the one hundred in SENA countries. His current average is 40 and I dare say had he gone to England, it would have dropped to 30s. Can't be sure but that would be my educated guess."
Team India squad for England tour:
Shubman Gill (C), Rishabh Pant (VC & WK), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair, Nitish Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel (WK), Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav.
