Former Indian legendary batter Sunil Gavaskar feels Rohit Sharma has not scored the runs with the same capability we have known him to score. Rohit was dismissed by Haris Rauf at the MCG on Sunday against Pakistan after scoring only four runs while the team was chasing a challenging score of 160 runs.
Rohit and KL Rahul were both defensive in their batting approach against the potent Pakistan bowling line-up. In fact, Rohit has been getting off to starts in the recent past but he hasn’t scored the runs consistently for the team.
Rohit recently scored a fine knock of 72 runs against Sri Lanka in the Super Four stage of the Asia Cup but apart from that innings, he hasn’t delivered for the team. Furthermore, he scored 46 off just 20 balls against Australia in a rain-curtailed match.
“The only concern really has been that Rohit Sharma of late has not quite scored with the same capability we know him to. I think if he gets going it really makes people’s life really easy for people to follow,” Gavaskar told India Today.
It will be imperative for India’s top order to give a good platform to the team in the upcoming matches of the T20 World Cup. India found themselves on the ropes at 31-4 against Pakistan but Virat Kohli and Hardik Pandya were able to bail them out of trouble.
“A good platform is what everyone looks at. You give a good platform, a good start and it makes that much easier for somebody coming down at four or five to start hitting the ball from the first ball. They don’t have to give themselves time to settle in, they don’t have to give themselves time to steady the ship like India had to do against Pakistan when they were four wickets down for 31. So, even if you get a slightly slower start, maybe get to about 40 after losing 1 wicket, that is a much better platform than 31/4,” Gavaskar said.
Kohli and Pandya went on add a 113-run alliance for the fifth wicket partnership and it turned out to be the match-winning stand. However, India will want their openers to give them a solid start in the upcoming matches of the T20I showpiece.
India has got off to a perfect start and they will next face the Netherlands on Thursday at the SCG.
