Team India captain Rohit Sharma has not been at his best with the bat in recent times as the ultra-attacking batting approach has held him back from scoring big runs in T20Is this year. The ICC trophy drought has seen India change their batting template in white-ball cricket, especially in the T20 format.
Under Rahul Dravid’s coaching, India have started embracing a fearless brand of batting right from the start of the innings. Being an opening batter, the responsibility thus falls on Rohit’s shoulders to give his team a flying start alongside batting partner KL Rahul.
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The new approach has helped India in winning several bilateral series this year but Rohit has not been able to hit the big scores he’s reputed for. The swashbuckling opener has smashed four centuries in his T20I career but this year has been different.
In the quest to give India a blistering start, he’s getting out in the 20s and 30s.
And has scored two half-centuries this year in T20s so far.
In an exclusive conversation with News18 CricketNext, former South Africa all-rounder Lance Klusener suggested that Rohit should stick to his natural game and if the team management wants someone to take advantage of the Powerplay then it should assign that role to someone else.
“I’m not sure, whether he’s been told to play differently or whether it appears that, or the fact that possibly he hasn’t been as consistent as he would like in the last 25-30 games. But my advice to Rohit would be just to continue how he has been doing in the past," Klusener said.
“There’s no need for him to go faster. He was playing easily fast enough, aggressive enough and well enough, not to have changed. So if there has been, some sort of message to him or whatever it is, I think you need to be very careful, especially with your established match winners that role might need to go to somebody else if you’re looking to increase the run rate or take advantage of the power play. I think the way Rohit plays he’s a match-winner in that department and the way he goes about his things, and he’s proved that over many years as well. So possibly if they are looking to increase the run rate that does need to go to somebody else," he asserted.
Talking about South Africa at the upcoming T20 World Cup, Klusener felt that they have as much a strong chance as any other big team but in the end, the two teams who manage to find consistency will go all the way to the final.
“Yeah, I think so. Africa has got as good a chance as any other six teams out there, Australia, South Africa, India, Pakistan, New Zealand and England. Any two of those teams that finds consistency and performance that finds a rhythm, I guess, over those three weeks will find themselves in the final," he added.
The legendary allrounder thinks that only Australia will enter the tournament as favourites being the hosts otherwise all other teams will be entering as equals.
“I don’t think there’s too much of a standout team besides, I guess Australia only really because it’s all happening in their backyard, but, could possibly favour non-subcontinent teams. But we know Pakistan has had success there in the World Cup as well. So we should never count, count that against a subcontinent team. But, I think South Africa has got as good a chance as any one of those other five teams," he added.
Klusener was recently associated with Zimbabwe cricket as their batting coach where he saw the rise of Sikandar Raza in white-ball cricket. The middle-order batter has been a consistent performer and it’s quite possible that an IPL contract could come his way.
The 51-year-old speaks highly of the Zimbabwean cricketer but at the same time he suggested that the competition in IPL is tough for overseas players.
“I mean, hats off to him. There’s nobody that, that works harder than him. He’s always there first in the net and last to leave, and somebody who was always pushing his comfort zones. And it’s just been fantastic to see what he’s achieved. I’m just irritated with him that it’s taken him so long to get to the level that he’s playing at the moment. But the competition in the IPL is extremely tough especially for places from overseas players. But in terms of run-scoring and in terms of performance he’s a match-winner like anybody else out there. Just from a personal point of view, I guess it would be fantastic to see him picked up in one of the teams because he is a match winner and he is starting to show the ability of taking responsibility for being not out at the end and winning the game for his team," he said.
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