Early this season, still waiting for the big break, Rohit Sharma had revealed his very conservative plan for the future. “Hope I make my senior international debut at home. You never know what can happen on those bouncy tracks abroad where the ball comes to your chin,” he said, sitting in a modest suburban restaurant where he had just arrived in his new luxury car.

Besides the smooth transition from being a promising junior to an India-A regular, the 20-year-old Borivali boy had climbed the social ladder too. He had moved from his rented accommodation to his own 2 BHK flat in the upscale area of the same suburb. But the escalating property rates in South Mumbai — his dream destination — and star-studded Indian batting line-up made him skeptical about his further ascent.

After an inconsequential international debut at Belfast where he got to play just 9 balls in two games, Sharma walked on to the pitch at Durban in a situation worse than what he dreaded.

Nothing was going as planned in the do-or-die game for India as Shaun Pollock and Mkhaya Ntini were on fire and the scoreboard read 33/3. At the back of young man’s mind was also his sudden exit from ODI squad for the first three games of the upcoming series against Australia.

But as the chairman of national selectors Dilip Vengsarkar says, “These are the situations that shows the true potential of a batsman. One can score double hundreds in inconsequential games but even a 50 in such a game is far more important.”

... contd.