Rohit Sharma might have scored just 166 runs in the last 16 innings, but that is not a cause for concern, said India’s batting coach Sitanshu Kotak. Sharma, who has been going through a rough patch of form since India’s home Test series against New Zealand, is desperately looking to get back in form.
Sharma recently returned to domestic cricket, hoping to rediscover his form, but was not successful. The batter snapped at a journalist in a pre-series press conference when asked about his ongoing lean patch. Things did not get better in the 1st ODI either, as the batter survived just 7 balls and scored 2 runs.
Speaking about the India captain, batting coach Sitanshu Kotak said that there was no problem with Rohit’s batting in white-ball cricket, as he had scored runs in India’s previous ODI series against Sri Lanka.
“I personally don’t think there’s any problem,” said Kotak at the pre-match press conference.
“In the last three one-dayers Rohit has played, he scored 56, 64, and 35. So, nearly averaging 50-plus in those last three one-dayers. I mean, we are talking about a player who has 31 ODI hundreds. And when they are (scoring in) back-to-back matches, when they keep scoring runs, nobody asks, when will he fail?” Kotak said ahead of Sunday’s ODI match in Cuttack.
Kotak further argued that the critics had been reading too much into Rohit Sharma’s form and that it was just a lean patch. Rohit has only two more matches to return to form before the ICC Champions Trophy. Rohit was sensational in the last 50-over ICC tournament – the ODI World Cup 2023, where he scored nearly 600 runs.
“I think when sometimes somebody gets out or has a little bit of a lean patch, I don’t think I would be worried or would be thinking about their form,” said Kotak. “Yes, Australia Tests, if you are saying, yes, that was a tough time and the guys got out, that’s fine. But about the one-dayers, the way he batted in the last three one-dayers before the first match (in this series), he has always been scoring runs. So, not really much concerned about that,” Kotak concluded on the matter.
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