Rohit Sharma is widely regarded as one of the most skilled batsmen in contemporary cricket. ‘Lazy elegance’ is a term often gets associated with his aesthetically pleasing batting style. However, the Indian opener is not a fan of it as he feels there is no such thing called ‘lazy elegance’.
According to the Hitman, one can’t be a sportsperson if he was lazy.
“When you’re playing a sport you cannot be lazy - as simple as that. You know maybe it may sound or it may look on television but if you’re lazy you cannot achieve what you want to achieve on the field. You have to be at it, like I said just now, you have to be ahead of the game and you cannot be ahead of your opposition if you’re lazy," Rohit said in an interview to Dinesh Karthik for Sky Sports.
“You can’t hit that pull shot when there are guys bowling 145 plus and all that. You can’t be lazy, you’ll get hit on your head. So I don’t think people understand that. But yeah I mean it’s it’s fine, they’ve been talking about this since I started playing for India - ‘oh he’s got lazy elegance’ and I don’t understand this term lazy elegance, there’s nothing called lazy elegance.
“I’ve also heard people say ‘he has got a lot of time’. No boss. I don’t have any time. I know when I’m playing the bowler, you have to be ready. There’s no such thing as extra time. Every batsman is challenged by the bowler. You just have to be on top of your mindset and game. There is no time. Guys are quick enough to rattle you. Technically you can say he is playing the ball late, there are different styles of batsmanships. Some play the ball early, some play late. There’s no such thing as less time, more time."
Rohit Sharma has quite a few world records to his name. He is the proud owner of the highest individual ODI score — 264 (against Sri Lanka in 2014). Moreover, he is the only batsman in history to have scored three ODI double tons and four Twenty20 international centuries.
In 2019, Sharma was promoted to open the innings in Test cricket and the right-hander is having a great time at the top in the longest format since then.
Rohit said being axed from the 2011 World Cup squad made him a stronger cricketer.
“I was so desperate to get into the team and do well and I know the sort of team we had that time, we had the best chance of winning the WC, so I wanted to be a part of that WC and if I get an opportunity, try and make a difference. Down the line, I want to blame myself and not anyone. Maybe I didn’t have a great run before the tournament and that kind of setback was needed to improve and understand my game better. In a way, it did good to me, I came back as a different person altogether. I sort of completely changed everything – especially the mindset and technical aspect of the game after that,” he remarked.
