Former Indian batter Subramaniam Badrinath has put his weight behind Rohit Sharma for the ODI World Cup. Badrinath said it looks like Rohit Sharma and head coach Gautam Gambhir have a great relationship in the dressing room.
It was earlier reported that Rohit would play his final ODI game at Lord’s, but he answered the critics in style. Rohit scored a magnum opus knock of 138 runs off 110 balls in the third ODI at the iconic venue on Sunday as he became the first Indian batter to score an ODI century at Lord’s. However, his efforts went in vain as India could not chase down a gargantuan total of 388 runs and fell short by 27 runs in the end.
The veteran batter scored 17 fours and five sixes in his blistering knock as he batted at the top of his game. Badrinath said India would need Rohit Sharma’s experience in the South African conditions.
Badrinath said on his YouTube Channel, “It feels like a mere speculation because it looks like Rohit Sharma and Gautam Gambhir have a great relationship, looking from the outside. But Gambhir has preferred youngsters ever since he took over as coach. Rohit was the Player of the Match in the final of last year’s Champions Trophy. The next World Cup will be in South Africa and places like Johannesburg and Durban will have extreme pace and bounce. Rohit Sharma will be needed in such venues.”
“Also, everytime there is pressure and a sword hangs over his head, he responds. So it’ll be ideal if the management makes a strong decision on Rohit for the World Cup now and sticks with it.”
The former CSK batter questioned the team management for putting undue pressure on the batting duo of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, who have performed consistently.
“Only three Indian batters have performed in ODIs since the 2025 Champions Trophy. Rohit Sharma averages over 50 in this stretch, while Virat Kohli averages 75 and Shubman Gill averages 67. Only these three batters have performed in ODIs. Yet, the team management is putting pressure on Rohit Sharma. And when Rohit is under pressure, Virat Kohli is also feeling the pressure. So they are having a sword over the head of two of the three batters actually performing well, which is wrong,” said Badrinath (via the aforementioned source).
“KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan haven’t scored runs in this series and in this stretch. Even I was all for going with younger players. But it’s when you look at these numbers that you get the true picture on who’s actually performing and who isn’t. It makes me fear India going all-out with youngsters.”
Virat Kohli returned with scores of 5, 65, and 74 in the three ODIs against England.
