Anurag Kumar
Team India will return to action on June 7 when it faces Australia in the World Test Championship final. The Rohit Sharma-led squad will be looking to erase the memory of India’s failure to New Zealand in the inaugural WTC in 2021, when India was captained by Virat Kohli. This year, however, there is an additional significant concern for the team heading into the final: Rohit’s form.
Rohit, a 36-year-old star opener, had a disappointing 2023 Indian Premier League season. Although he led the Mumbai Indians to the semifinals, his batting performances left much to be desired. Rohit scored 332 runs in 16 matches for the team at an average of 20.75 and a strike rate of 132.
Sanjay Manjrekar, a former India batsman, believes the team management should not be concerned about Rohit’s form because the opener is at ease in Test cricket.
“Ignore his IPL form, as he appeared out of form in the previous IPL as well… we witnessed his incredible batting performance in the first Test against Australia.” Test cricket appears to be the most thrilling format for Rohit Sharma at this point in his career, just as it has always been for Virat Kohli, Manjrekar told Star Sports.
“His current batting performance in Test cricket is nearly flawless. Only one issue has been observed during test matches: he is occasionally dismissed while playing the draw shot. They have delivered him a short ball while maintaining a fielder in place. This is an involuntary injection.”
Manjrekar went on to describe how Rohit utilizes his follow-through to generate momentum for his pull shot.
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“If you observe him in ODI cricket, his draw shot is quite intriguing. His back lift does not originate from above, allowing him to play the ball down. “He has a very low back lift; he simply picks up the ball, and in the follow-through, the bat goes behind his back to generate power,” Manjrekar explained.
In fact, Rohit had a worse IPL season in 2022, when he failed to surpass the 300-run mark and scored only 265 runs in 14 matches. Rohit’s last season with 400+ runs was in 2019, when he scored 405 runs in 15 outings.
