Former England skipper Alastair Cook heaped praise for Indian opener Rohit Sharma for his heroics on Day 1 of the second Test match between India and England in Chennai and said that Sharma looked absolutely world-class in spin-friendly conditions in Chennai.
Indian opener Rohit Sharma set the stage on fire and notched up a marvelous century (his 7th in Test cricket) on the first day of the second Test-match between India and England.
Coming into the match, the flamboyant opener was in talks for his poor form of runs as he managed to score only one fifty-plus score in his last seven innings.
Replying to all the critics the talismanic batsman led India’s batting charge and scored 161 runs off 231 balls on the Chepauk pitch, where some of his established teammates struggled.
While reflecting on Rohit’s innings at Chepauk former England opener Alastair Cook associated Sharma's batting style to Virender Sehwag and said that the former is not in the same tier when it comes to attacking nature but can do damage by following his methods.
"He is a little bit more attacking than I was. He is not quite Sehwag in terms of that kind of attack he (Sehwag) is probably is one of the most attacking and successful opening batsmen. Rohit is probably in the next tier of aggressiveness but he looked so controlled. In that innings, he wanted to attack when he wanted, everything looked quite controlled," Alastair Cook told BBC's Test Match Special Podcast.
Cook said the only issue with Rohit's batting is his outside off-stump game. However, according to him, Rohit is able to negotiate that on sluggish Indian wickets which makes him absolutely world-class at home.
"The only obvious issue with Rohit is that line outside the off-stump, the way he got out in the first innings of the 1st Test match. His record away from home isn't great. That's where you need to target him but obviously, this pitch doesn't have that pace. In these conditions, he looked absolutely world-class. His stats in India averaging over 50 shows that." he said.
Cook pointed out that Rohit struggled for consistency during the initial phase of his Test career and said if he had been in England's team he would have got a long run as an opener.
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"... Also, when he has played, he wasn't that consistent to start with. Also, the Indian selectors make changes if he was English, maybe he would have been given a longer run.
He has only just started opening. He has batted a lot in the middle order. Only in the last little bit he has taken his one-day opening role, he has obviously opened a lot in one-day, into the red-ball (format)," he said.
Alastair Cook further lauded Rohit Sharma as a Test opener and said that Team India like having Rohit in the Test squad.
"He is here to stay for a while. They like having him in the squad and he is in the team for that all-round package -- Clearly his runs and the manner he gets his runs, if he gets in, he is going to do what he has done today (more often),” he concluded.
(BBC inputs)
