Former India cricketer and once his Mumbai teammate, Wasim Jaffer, lauded contemporary opener Rohit Sharma, backing him to continue the excellent form he has shown and score double hundreds in Test match cricket outside India.
Rohit has been leading the way when it comes to scoring big in the 50-over version of the game and also looks like finally cementing his position in the Test side, for which Jaffer reserved special praise for the prodigiously talented right-hander.
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"I feel he understands his game a lot more now," he said, stressing on the maturity Rohit now shows on another former India Test opener, Aakash Chopra's, Youtube channel. "This is not the Rohit Sharma that we have seen before. He knows where he needs to calm down."
"Even in ODI cricket, if you see the World Cup (in the UK last year), the ball was moving around in a few matches and he held back. He held back for 8-10 overs against South Africa and Pakistan," Jaffer added.
Even though playing conditions in ODIs have never been more similar across different countries, in that they are relatively flatter, Jaffer thinks Rohit should still be slightly careful when he plays abroad at the start of his innings, especially as he has all the shots in his armoury to catch up later.
"Then when he understands that the conditions have become better, he has that ability to accelerate and suddenly his strike rate would go up to 120-130," he said.
Rohit had an outstanding 2019, scoring five hundreds and ending as the highest run-getter at the World Cup, and then starting opening the batting in Test cricket on a wonderful note with that prolific home series against South Africa.
Against the Proteas, Rohit scored a magnificent Test double in Ranchi to help complete India's 3-0 series win. Jaffer expects him to replicate the feat when he opens for the country abroad.
"I feel he is in that headspace where that he understands where he needs to take a backseat and where he can attack," Jaffer said.
"And he has both the games. I feel in overseas conditions in the first 30-45 minutes he is a bit vulnerable. I think if he survives that, he has the ability to get double hundreds even there," he added.
Rohit looked in just as good a form at the beginning of this year, but unfortunately went down with a calf injury that cut short his tour of New Zealand before the COVID-19 pandemic brought the sporting world to a halt.
