Rohit Sharma is one of the few cricketers, who despite possessing great talent and quality, has not been able to cement his position in the team. And even if his 94 runs knock against West Indies A has taken him a step closer to earning his first Test cap; do not blame the selectors if they chose someone else over Sharma.

If this happens, no one else than Sharma would be responsible for it! The stylish right-handed batsman from Mumbai, who showed some extra-ordinary skills in domestic cricket to earn his ODI debut in 2007 against Ireland, was seen as the next big thing and the pundits touted him as the next Sachin Tendulkar. 

But then after some initial glimpses of excellence, inconsistency starting setting in and his spot was taken by Suresh Raina and he lost the reserve batsman position in the team to Virat Kohli.  After that he has had occasional comebacks but could not feature in the 2011 World Cup side.

He made a comeback in 2011 ODI series in West Indies and he earned the man of the series award. He was praised by all quarters but then however could not maintain that form.

For a player of his quality who has made his ODI debut in 2007, he should have by now had at least scored more than five centuries but he has only two to his name. Rohit has impressed Indian cricketing icon Sachin Tendulkar from the very beginning and he even said that Rohit has the capacity to match his records. But after more than four years in international cricket, he has only flattered to deceive. The batsman with such supreme quality has not able to justice to it and that shows in his statistics.

Sharma who is yet to make his Test debut has played 72 ODI and has scored 1,810 runs at an average of 34.80 including two centuries and nine half centuries. The stats by no means show his actual talent but it is only due to these figures that a player like Sharma either does not make it to the squad or warms the bench. This should not have ideally happened to Sharma taking into consideration his class.

Sharma has often been found guilty of throwing his wicket at crunch times which has cost the team dear. His inconsistency is his biggest enemy and he does not seem to be working on that. Despite his inconsistency, keeping his talent in mind the selectors have given him enough opportunities to prove himself. But he somehow has failed to grab on to those chances. Recent example to that is CB Series in Australia where he got ample opportunity to prove his mettle. He did look strong but then all of a sudden would get out to a poor shot. The manner in which he got out in the series even prompted the commentators to talk about his poor shot selection.

Sharma is obviously one of the most gifted players of the modern time and it would not be harsh to say that he possesses more quality than the guys who overtook him to the team. But then the fact is that they applied better techniques and temperament to cement their place in the side while Sharma was busy wasting the opportunities he got.

By Indian Sports News Network