India’s bowling coach Paras Mhambrey is happy to note that Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma adopted an aggressive batting approach against Bangladesh in the last game. Rohit and Virat added 39 runs off 22 balls against the Tigers to give a quick start to their team.
While Rohit scored 23 runs off just 11 balls, Kohli went on to score 37 runs off 28 balls. Subsequently, all the Indian batters – Rishabh Pant (36 off 24), Shivam Dube (34 off 24, and Hardik Pandya (50* off 27) took the attack against the Bangladesh bowlers.
As a result, India was able to post a par score of 196 runs on the board after they were put into bat by Najmul Hossain Shanto.
While Rohit Sharma has scored 99 runs in five matches of the World Cup at an average of 24.75 and a strike rate of 124.31, Kohli has managed only 66 runs in five games at an average of 13.20.
“I think Virat has been – in the last, we’ve seen from the IPL itself and Rohit from the World Cup. I think both of them are in great form. I think every game there is a certain plan that you go in with. Sometimes some individual has to take a chance, the other has to play a defending role. So, I think that’s going to happen out here, that’s what is happening. Rohit is playing his natural game,” said Paras Mhambrey in the pre-match press conference ahead of the Australia game.
Mhambrey hailed Virat Kohli for showing the right intent against Bangladesh and playing in an aggressive manner.
“But it’s good to see that in this game especially, the intent that Virat has shown, I think that’s good to see that, good to see that intent. And I think performance – you’ll have games like this, you’ll get a 40-odd, 50-odd run, but I think the way he went about with the intent, that was good to see. That was good heartening. And I think that’s the intent that we want as a batting unit as well. Something that we’ve been emphasising on throughout the previous World Cup, this World Cup as well,” he added
India will next take on Australia at the Daren Sammy National Cricket Stadium, Gros Islet, St Lucia on Monday.
