Shamik Chakrabarty, Mumbai
For the bulk of his glorious career, Rohit Sharma used to set up his innings in ODIs. It used to be a slow burn followed by acceleration towards the latter half of the innings. The approach made him one of the finest-ever in the 50-over format.
Then, he decided to change his style and go gung-ho from the outset. India took a different batting approach at the 2023 World Cup and Rohit was the torchbearer, leading from the front and resplendent in his selfless cricket. Rohit’s career strike-rate is 92.80. At the 2023 World Cup, he scored 597 runs at a strike-rate of 125.94.
He continued with that approach at the 2024 T20 World Cup as well, followed by the Champions Trophy (50-over format) earlier this year. Like a true leader, he did it for the team at the expense of personal milestones. He was the captain then and had the liberty to live by the sword and die by it. Things have changed since. He has lost the ODI captaincy to Shubman Gill and went to Australia knowing that from now on, he would be judged on a series-to-series basis. At the team selection press conference, Ajit Agarkar, the chief selector, name-checked Yashasvi Jaiswal, the reserve opener.
This throws open the debate — should Rohit stick to his devil-may-care style or change his approach and return to his natural game. Given his range — nobody can match it in the Indian team — he can always make up for a slowish start towards the back end of the innings.
Pravin Amre, the former India batsman and now a highly respected coach, has seen Rohit grow and worked with him in the past. He is in favour of a change as far as the approach is concerned.
“I personally feel like such an approach would help,” Amre said, speaking to RevSportz. “I saw his (Rohit) journey from his U-16 days in Mumbai and then as a junior India player. And from there, when he made his Ranji Trophy debut for Mumbai, I was with him. What
I like about him; he is the person who always keeps the team in front of everything, and what you just discussed the last two years, his approach, it was just for the team’s sake, I think. And I think he was the person who led from the front, the captaincy, and took the entire responsibility on his shoulders as a leader.”
The World Cup was Rohit’s holy grail, and he was at the forefront of India’s changed batting template. “What we could make out from his eyes, like he wanted to win the ICC trophies for India very badly,” observed Amre. “And for that, I think, he went into that role, that explosive batting, which really worked. Even though we lost that one-day World Cup in Ahmedabad, but throughout the tournament, the way he played, he led from the front. And same thing he did in the West Indies and America also, to win the T20 World Cup. But yes, now he is not leading. I think that is what a smart cricketer does.”
Amre feels that if Rohit starts enjoying his batting, he can still be unstoppable. But it’s two-way traffic. The team management should also give him the space to play his natural game.
“He is the senior-most player in the team, and I think he should play like that (natural game), and team management also should give him that room so that he can just enjoy his batting,” said Amre. “Whenever he enjoys his batting, I think he will be even more of a match-winner. Also, he won’t have that burden of the captaincy now.”
At 38 years of age, can Rohit still be a match-winner? Amre responds in the affirmative. “He (Rohit) is still capable of that, because I just met him before (he went to Australia), and I saw that tremendous improvement in his fitness. He was doing training, and I was there at BKC. I said to him, ‘a fit body will have a fit mind’. He has worked really hard last six months to reduce 10 kilos.”
Can Rohit go on until the 2027 World Cup? “Let’s take one series at a time,” said Amre. “Let him enjoy his cricket, for he doesn’t have anything to prove to anyone.”
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