Ahead of the World Cup, former Indian all-rounder and ex-batting coach, Sanjay Bangar, has recommended that India's captain, Rohit Sharma, should consider returning to his previous style of patiently building his innings. Bangar's suggestions come in light of Sharma's recent shift to a more aggressive batting style.
Despite Rohit's exceptional form, marked by three consecutive fifties at the Asia Cup and a robust 57-ball 81 against Australia in Rajkot, Bangar believes that Sharma's traditional style, where he takes his time before accelerating, might be more beneficial in the long run.
Before the 2019 World Cup, Sharma boasted an impressive record, scoring 27 hundreds, inclusive of three double centuries, with an average of 48.91 and a strike rate of 88.65. However, post that, his centuries in ODIs dropped to just three. His notable score of 159 against West Indies in Visakhapatnam remains his only 150-plus score after the 2019 World Cup.
"I feel the one of an accumulator (what role should he play?). He is someone who has had phenomenal success as an ODI player. And many times that he has scored his hundred, it's around the 30th over. All those 3 double hundreds that we speak of and rave of so much, the acceleration came toward the last 10-12 overs where he just toys with the bowling," Bangar told Star Sports in response to a question from India Today.
"So a dangerous Rohit Sharma, if he gets to that 35-over mark, then India is assured of a score of around 350. If he sticks to that sort of a template… I know he is trying to do certain other things, maybe take the game away from the bowlers, but he has got a phenomenal, fearless Shubman Gill, he can afford to play the accumulator which will guarantee that India will get a big total," he added.
Shubman Gill, Rohit's opening partner, has been adopting the patient approach, letting Rohit be the aggressive front. Nevertheless, Rohit himself has clarified that his aggressive intent was a deliberate strategy, tailored to cater to the demands of contemporary ODI innings which favour aggressive batting.
''Everyone wants to bat long and score those 150s and 170s. I still want to do that, but it is always nice to do something that you have not done. It only adds up in your list of batting abilities. Unless you do it, you won't know it," said Rohit.
''I know if I play high-risk shots, I will get out few times but I didn't bother. This was communicated by me to the management that this is how I want to play," he added.
As Team India prepares for their World Cup journey, they're slated to play a warm-up against the Netherlands in Thiruvananthapuram, followed by their opening match against Australia in Ahmedabad.
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