Rohit Sharma's numbers weren't any impressive in the recent T20I series at home.
Former India wicketkeeper-batter Saba Karim raised questions over Team India’s new all-format captain Rohit Sharma's batting form and made a bold statement about his place in the playing XI in T20Is.
Rohit is known to be a big hitter, but in the recent home series against the West Indies and Sri Lanka, he wasn't impressive at all. The opener could manage 50 runs at an appalling average of 16.67 and just 78 runs in three innings against Sri Lanka and the West Indies respectively.
Reacting to this Karim is concerned with Rohit's form with the bat and said the right-hander is in India’s playing XI because of his batting and with the additional responsibility of the captaincy; things are only going to get tougher in the future, so he should be ready for it.
Speaking on the ‘Khelneeti’ podcast, Karim said: “Rohit Sharma is in the XI because of his batting. Captaincy is an additional responsibility. He should not lose focus with regards to batting. A lot of times we have seen that captains are not able to perform as well in their primary skill. This should not happen.”
He added, “This is just the starting phase for Rohit Sharma. He will gradually realize how important his runs are for the team. His performance will be crucial in Australia (during the T20 World Cup), where the grounds are big and the opposition has top-quality bowlers. So yes, Rohit Sharma needs to work on this area.”
Meanwhile, Karim lauded Shreyas Iyer who was in red-hot form against Sri Lanka. He said, “Shreyas Iyer has reinvented his game. If you look at the pattern of his game, this becomes evidently clear.”
Karim signed off by saying, “We call Suryakumar Yadav a 360-degree player, but I was looking at Shreyas’ wagon wheel in the three games against Sri Lanka. Except for the area behind the keeper, he has scored runs everywhere. He has found his template to score runs. Having said that, there are bigger challenges ahead for him.”