Ajinkya Rahane (batting in picture) has evolved as a batsman in the T20 format

Not so long time ago, Rohit Sharma was bogged down by inconsistency and lack of confidence. All this changed during the fourth One-Day International (ODI) against England in Chandigarh in January 2013, chasing a 258-run target on a bitingly cold evening he was thrust into the limelight and asked to do something he wasn’t accustomed to. But Rohit did what the ambitious do often. He carved out a beautiful 83 and took India within 100 runs of victory.

But over the past few months, Rohit has been revisiting days of underachievement. The runs have dried up: he did nothing of note in the ODI series against the West Indies; he was all at sea in South Africa; the New Zealand sojourn did him no good and he flopped in the Asia Cup 2014 too. His strike-rate too took a hit. Which brings us to the question: Is it time do away with the Rohit as an opener experiment for now? With the ICC World T20 2014 around the corner, it is imperative that he be allowed to bat in the middle order. Ajinkya Rahane should be the man partnering Shikhar Dhawan at the top.