At this time only Virat Kohli is being discussed in Indian cricket. He is getting out for 20 or less runs nine times in the last 12 international innings and this is a topic of concern. Rohit Sharma’s recent weaknesses have been ignored. His inconsistency of runs is not a talking point and there is no noise as much as Virat. But the truth is that Rohit Sharma was able to score a half-century against England at the Oval after scoring two half-centuries against New Zealand long back. His repeated surrender to the left-arm bowler can be a big trouble for his future.
In the third T20I and second ODI against England, he was dismissed by left-arm bowler Reece Topley. On both the occasions he fell victim to the length ball. On the first occasion, he was caught on the slower ball, while on the second, he was dismissed for missing a drive at Lord’s. In the T20 World Cup last year, he was dismissed by left-arm seamer Shaheen Afridi of Pakistan on a yorker taking an inward movement.
At the Wankhede Stadium, New Zealand’s left-arm speedster Trent Boult’s ball came out between his bat and pad and he was bowled out. Australian Jason Behrendorff dismissed him on an incoming ball in Guwahati. During this his footwork was so slow that he could only go half-forward. In the Champions Trophy, Pakistan’s left-arm fast bowler Mohammad Amir made him his victim on an inswinger In these matches, his side stance became a source of trouble.
The length balls coming inwards from the left arm fast bowler are troubling him a lot. Sometimes playing nip-baker balls, sometimes in-swing balls and sometimes inward movement is becoming challenge for him. Here it is important that he should open his stance although he played with open stance in the Asia Cup. While playing with an open stance, when his front foot goes across, he will also cover his stumps with it.
However, there is also a fact that he does not feel himself in a very comfortable position to play with an open stance. It has also been seen many times that he stands in front of the stump. On coming balls from outside the off stump, the bat does not reach the ball in time. Another reason is that while playing drive, his head stays away from the front foot. In this respect, his style is completely different from that of Virat Kohli. His hands move fast for the shot but the body reacts late.
In such a situation, he also finds it difficult to transfer body weight forward. Similarly, sometimes playing away from the body, swinging and seaming balls, the gap between the bat and the pad is his big problem, due to which the ball hits his pad directly and he does not get a chance to save himself from getting out.
Here in the 2003 World Cup, it would be appropriate to give the example of Sachin Tendulkar because in this World Cup as an opener, he was giving the strike to Sehwag on the first ball many times but against Pakistan, in front of left arm Wasim Akram, he thought it better to take the strike himself by not giving the strike to Sehwag. In fact, he wanted to save Sehwag from Akram`s fast inward stock ball. Rohit Sharma needs to learn from all these incidents
But one good thing is that Rohit plays the left arm fast bowlers better against David Willey and Mitchell Starc. By the way, Virat Kohli is also not in a comfortable position in front of left-arm fast bowlers. Trent Boult, Shaheen Afridi, Mohammad Amir and David Willey have been creating problems for him but Virat has some other problems as well which he is not able to solve nowadays. In such a situation, both these players will have to get rid of the habit of getting stuck in front of the left-arm fast bowlers as soon as possible since there is not much time left for the start of the T20 World Cup.