Rohit Sharma in action for Indian cricket team© AFP
Former Indian cricket team batter Sanjay Manjrekar believes that Rohit Sharma has evolved as a batter and he no longer has a weakness against quality left-arm fast bowlers. In the past, Rohit has struggled against left-arm pacers but Manjrekar cited his performance in the Cricket World Cup 2023 to point out that the weakness is no longer present. Manjrekar said that Rohit came up against Mitchell Starc and Shaheen Afridi but his confident and aggressive batting showed a massive improvement.
“The weakness you are talking about, the weakness against left-handers, is a thing of the past. Not anymore. In the last two or three years, he hasn’t had any problems. Mitchell Starc in the home series. He was comfortable against Australia with the new ball. Shaheen Afridi was supposed to be the danger man against Rohit Sharma. That was a Rohit who used to plant his front foot across the line. Not anymore. I think he has become a good Test player,” Manjrekar said while speaking on Star Sports.
Manjrekar also spoke about how Rohit has been able adapt his game according to the various formats. While his ODI and T20I game depends a lot on the aggressive approach, his Test match strategy has been about occupying the crease and not taking unnecessary risks.
“He plays exactly the opposite. When he gets runs at the Test level these days, it’s just occupation of the crease, which is an incredible memory that I have of him from England. When he came to the fore as a Test opener, he got a hundred there and ended up as the highest run-getter in that series. The number of hours he batted there in that series. The occupation of the crease is giving him a high now in Tests. It’s exactly the opposite role he played in the World Cup,” he added.
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