There is no bigger victim of the word ‘talent’ in Indian cricket than Rohit Sharma. Ever since his international debut in 2007, he has been labelled as the most naturally gifted batsman since Sachin Tendulkar.

While Rohit often receives a lot of praise for his talent, the same terminology also becomes a curse for him every now and then. When the right-hander doesn’t manage to live up to the expectations, he gets brutally trolled on social media with folks making fun of his talent.  

During the early days of his international career, Sharma also coped criticism for his laid back approach. In fact, many people felt his hard work wasn’t up to the mark and thus success was eluding him.

On Saturday (June 27), former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan spoke on the same topic and said Rohit did not lack hard work in his early years even though his body language suggested a “relaxed” attitude.

“A lot of people are mistaken when they see a guy who has a lot of time and he is slightly more relaxed than compared to Rohit. Then you say he needs to work hard,” Pathan was quoted as saying by Star Sports show ‘Cricket Connected’.

He further cited the example of former India opener Wasim Jaffer, who also got his fair share of scrutiny for the same reason.

“… when he [Jaffer] used to run he used to run very relaxed, when he used to bat he had lot of time and we used to think why isn’t he working hard but actually, he was working really hard.

“Similarly with Rohit, from outside we used to think he might need to work harder, he might need to put more application,” Irfan remarked.

Rohit’s leadership skills are known to everyone as he has led Mumbai Indians to four IPL titles and also did wonders for Team India in the limited opportunities.

Pathan said Rohit always talks about sensible things and that’s why he is successful as a batsman and captain in the Indian Premier League.

“He used to always talk about working hard and he used to always talk about the team first as well, that is why you see some of the results he got at the captain of the Mumbai Indians team.

“He got the beating of not playing the World Cup and then came back really hard because of a strong mind set after 2012.”

(With PTI inputs)