Rohit Sharma: Hitman in hinterland

It’s been a bitter-sweet T20 World Cup for Rohit Sharma. As skipper, he has ticked all the boxes, made the right moves, picked the right combinations in alliance with Rahul Dravid, got his game plans spot-on. As batsman, he has been indisputably below par, looking in reasonable touch without displaying the consistency that once made him the most feared batsman in white-ball play.

India’s march to the semifinals has helped mask some of Rohit’s batting travails, but no one will be more acutely aware of the need to pull his weight in his primary discipline than the 35-year-old, as proud a competitor as they come. His affable exterior is in no way a reflection of his inner persona; Rohit is as intensely driven as the next man, though he doesn’t wear that intensity on his sleeve, unlike his mercurial predecessor, Virat Kohli.

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Rohit hasn’t looked in horrible touch. Unlike KL Rahul, who seemed ill at ease in India’s first three games before bouncing back with luminous half-centuries in the last two encounters, the captain has struck the ball sweetly, found the boundaries and got off to a start almost every single time, but apart from a languid half-century against Netherlands, he hasn’t kicked on. In his desire to lead from the front in the implementation of India’s template of attacking batting during the Powerplays, he has sold himself short, his woes compounded by the tricky conditions up front that have inhibited free scoring against the new ball.

A tally of 89 runs at an underwhelming average of 17.80 and a strike-rate of 109.87 are decidedly inferior to his career numbers. Rohit has not allowed grass to grow under his feet; he has been a near-constant at all optional training sessions, working assiduously on finding the rhythm that has been elusive in game situations. His commitment to his craft would indicate that a match-defining innings isn’t too far away, but this deep into the tournament with a maximum of two innings ahead of him, he doesn’t have the luxury of time anymore to play himself into the competition.

Rohit’s frustrations at being tied down by disciplined bowling in pacer-friendly conditions have manifested themselves in charges down the track and unRohit-like ungainly hacks, though he has admirably found a way to disassociate his batting disappointments from his decision-making capacity on the field. He hasn’t yet reached a stage where his lack of runs is a cause for serious alarm, though in a batting line-up heavily reliant on the wizardry of Kohli and the brilliance of Suryakumar Yadav, the lack of meaningful runs from the captain could hurt the team in the knockouts.

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The bigger grounds in Australia have also conspired against Rohit. Brought up on bouncier tracks in Mumbai, Rohit is proficient square of the wicket on both sides; ironically enough, four of his five dismissals have come exactly three, three on the pull and the other to a half-dab, making room, which picked out widish deep gully.

Rohit is too good a puller to have to put that stroke away in cold storage, so it boils down to smart decision-making and choosiness in when and against whom to essay that shot. He isn’t so one-dimensional as to have to rely on the pull alone, but seeing as how damaging a weapon it can be, it will be unwise to ask or expect him to eschew that option.

The pressure on India’s middle-order has been huge this tournament, a direct offshoot of the openers having added just 79 runs together in five outings. Kohli and Suryakumar, the highest and third-highest run-makers respectively of this World Cup, have made light of having to indulge in rescue acts repeatedly, but they would love the luxury of coming in on the back of a cracking start from the skipper and his deputy.

Rohit has happy memories of his battles with semifinal opponents England, against whom he averages 34.81, strikes at 143.44 per hundred balls and has a century. Maybe Thursday is the day then?

(Writer is a senior cricket journalist)