He did not see that coming: Dinesh Karthik recalls Rohit Sharma's low point that 'tore him to shreds'

Rohit Sharma was promoted as India's full-time captain after Virat Kohli relinquished captaincy duties altogether by resigning as the red-ball captain early this year. Hitman, as Rohit is fondly called worldwide, has come a long way ever since his international debut in 2007. After his debut, he struggled for consistency -- despite showcasing his skills and talent in his early days -- before his fortunes changing after becoming a limited-overs opener since the 2013 Champions Trophy. Later in the same year, Rohit made his Test debut and scored two tons in his first-ever red-ball game but never managed to settle in the Test line-up in the following years.

Rohit's stature continued to grow in white-ball formats, where he came to his own since early 2016, he didn't play a single Test betweenOctober 2016 and November 2017. Moreover, his next Test century -- after his debut match -- also came in late 2017. While he was part of the South Africa Tests, in the African nation, in early 2018 and was among runs in the limited-overs series versus hosts England -- during Virat Kohli & Co.'s trip to the United Kingdom after a few months -- he was dropped for the five Tests versus Joe Root-led England. Thus, veteran keeper-batter Dinesh Karthik recently revealed that the 2018 Test omission hit Rohit really hard.

"He had almost gone down the path where he was so successful as a white-ball cricketer. He was happy doing that. And when he did come back into the Test team, you've got to remember in 2018, he was dropped from the Test team. He was sent back after the white-ball leg and that really hurt him. Rohit Sharma did not see that coming and that really tore him to shreds," Karthik said in the docu-series Summer Stalemate on Cricbuzz.

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While Rohit wasn't part of India's 4-1 loss at the hands of hosts England during the 2018 English summer, his red-ball career blossomed post his staggering success in the 2019 ODI World Cup. After the mega event, then head coach Ravi Shastri backed Rohit as a Test opener and Hitman hasn't disappointed ever since. Since India's home series versus South Africa in October 2019, Rohit has scored as many as five centuries -- including a double ton and also registering his maiden triple-figure knock in the format in overseas -- along with four half-centuries.