India, Feb. 8 -- Rohit Sharma is struggling. There are no two ways about it. Nearly a year without a hundred in any format, often falling to his favourite pull shot, feet and head not always in sync with hands, rarely has he looked this out of sorts. These things happen when you aim to be a high-functioning opener. But that wait has now consumed Test tours against New Zealand, Australia, a Ranji Trophy match and a one-dayer against England.

An inscrutable figure that Rohit is, it's impossible to perceive how exactly he must have felt sitting out the Sydney Test while allaying retirement rumours, only for that talk to resurface in ODIs, a format he virtually owns with three double centuries. The lack of runs is real though. The early dism...