Will Suresh Raina walk in for Rohit Sharma?

MELBOURNE: Out here in Australia, they just call him "264".

No prefixes, no 'number' or 'mister'. The chants follow him wherever he goes, and it was no different at the MCG nets as Rohit Sharma made an entrance on Wednesday. "264, 264, look this side," screamed some Indian fans, phones at the ready. The cricketer obliged, raising an arm.

Rohit knows he is in the Test side precisely because of that format-transcending number. He scored those runs in a One-day International off just 171 balls last month against Sri Lanka, immediately raising expectations of a rousing performance in the Tests Down Under. '264' ensured that his place in the XI was guaranteed, at least for the first two Tests. '264' also ensured that Suresh Raina's Test comeback would have to be put on ice, at least for a while longer.

It's significant how both of India's claimants for the crucial No. 6 spot - a sort of bulwark between the tail and the middle-order, a crucial last stop before the established batsmen run out - have struggled to translate One-day promise into Test performance.

When Rohit Sharma bats well, it's seems inconceivable he will ever fail. But at the Gabba, Ian Chappell commented on Fairfax Radio that the batsman appeared to be "sleepwalking".

There can be few more damning indictments of a player's lack of effort but Chappell was merely expressing what many have wondered for long: How can a player of Rohit's abilities fail so often in pressure situations? How can he be all gorgeous strokeplay and lazy elegance one day, and merely lazy the other?

More than his scores of 43, 6, 32 and 0 in this series, it has been the manner and timing of Rohit's dismissals which have rankled. Both dismissals in Adelaide sparked batting collapses, and while it was a similar story in the first innings at the Gabba, in the second, with India already reeling, he simply failed to stem the tide. Rohit may not get another chance since the Indian team management is giving a serious consideration to Raina's credentials. At the nets too, Raina got two long batting sessions as MS Dhoni and Ravi Shastri looked on.

Sharma batted much later with 'passenger' Wriddhiman Saha, when the established bowlers had already tested their rhythm and departed. If nets are any consideration, Raina's name looks to have been pencilled in for the Boxing Day Test already.

If Raina does get the nod, he should consider himself lucky. He played his last Test in August 2012, and if not for new director of cricket Ravi Shastri's eagerness to give him another go in whites, Raina may not have been on the flight to Australia at all.

Raina's superior performance in the One-Dayers in England, where he scored a century in Cardiff and appeared to revitalise the side, has offered hope of a similar resurgence in Tests in spite of his problems against the short ball.

There was a point when both players were batting in adjacent nets, Raina having come back for yet another stint. "264" was the clear crowd favourite. In India, the crowds are far more cynical. They call Sharma "Talent". The term itself is an indication of promise yet to be fulfilled.

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