Former India head coach Ravi Shastri, who knows a thing or two about winning Test rubbers in Australia, on Thursday asked India skipper Rohit Sharma to return to the opening slot “if he has to throw the first punch” on an opponent brimming with confidence. Shastri was serving as team director when India won their maiden Test series in Australia in 2017-18 and was the head coach when the side rallied brilliantly to stun the hosts in the last tour in 2020-21.

The move to slot Rohit at number six did not yield the desired results for India and they were hammered by 10 wickets in the second Test at Adelaide, leaving the five-match clash locked at 1-1 and with everything to play for in what Shastri believes could decide the fate of the series.

“That’s where he’s (Rohit) been at his best over the last eight or nine years,” Shastri was quoted as saying by ‘The Age’.

“It’s not that he’s going to set the world on fire – he could – but that’s the place that’s best for him…If he has to do damage, if he has to throw the first punch, that’s the best place from where he can do it.” Rohit had only one fifty in his last 10 innings heading into the Pink-ball Test last week when Shastri, interestingly, advised against changing the opening combination of Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul after their success in the position while backing the captain to bat in the middle-order.

Shastri said he has no doubt the winner of the third Test, starting here on Saturday, could go on to claim the series.

“I feel whichever team wins this Test match will win the series. I have absolutely no doubt in my mind. So it is very, very important that India get the balance right, because Australia have got the confidence back,” the former captain said.

The triumph of 2021 is considered one of the greatest in the history of Indian cricket and Shastri, while speaking at the first annual Usman Khawaja Foundation lunch at the Gabba, said the unity showed by the team, despite restrictions due to COVID-19, played a big part in the historic win.

“In COVID, the first Test match you start with five bowlers and the same five bowlers don’t play the last Test. That says it all, it’s like Australia playing without these five bowlers in the last Test of the series, it’s a different ball game. Plus you didn’t have quite a few batsmen as well. So it’s a tribute to the players.

“You can only do so much as a coach from behind the scenes. At the end of it, it’s the players who have to go out there and do their job and they were magnificent.” Four years ago, after getting bundled out for their lowest Test total of 36 in Adelaide, India made a magnificent comeback to win two of the remaining three games and emerge winners.

Shastri fondly recalled a conversation between Rishabh Pant and Shubman Gill, who was helping out the latter with some useful tips right after his dismissal, as India went for the jugular to score 140 odd runs in the final session of play to shock the hosts at the Gabba, which was until then the home team’s fortress.

“I’ll never forget it,” Shastri said.

“Last session, 140 runs to get. We had two different change rooms because of COVID. I went down from the coaches’ room to have a chat with either Rishabh or (Chateshwar) Pujara. When I was about to reach the toilet, I heard a conversation between Gill and Pant.

“Seventy-one overs bowled, Gill had got out for 91, and they were the two youngest players in the side, 21 and 22. ‘Nine overs left, they need the new ball, they’ll bring (Marnus) Labuschagne on with his leg spin, you’ve got to score 45-50 runs there’.

“They are planning how they can reach closer to the end score, and no way was I going to stop them, I don’t want to change that mindset. So I just walked past and said ‘do what you have to do’. In the end, we chased down nearly 150 in that last session.”

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