Rohit Sharma Leading From Front

New Delhi: India has been flying high this World cup with six wins out of six games and sitting right on top and it can’t be denied that it’s their captain Rohit Sharma who has been leading them from the front with the bat. Barring the first game where fell for a duck Rohit Sharma has been supreme and taking the attack to the opposition and has scored 393 runs in the next five with one hundred and two half centuries at a striker rate of above 100.

After the duck in the first game against Australia, Rohit Sharma has been absolutely superb with the bat and has flayed all the bowlers and has given India flying starts in the next five games and has hit 20 sixes which is more than any other player so far this world cup. He is not afraid of charging the bowlers and hitting them over the top and at the same time his pull shot which is Rohit’strademark shot this world cup has been jaw dropping. All his five innings have been special but the one played against England was his best as it was on a tricky pitch where he was the only batsman to score a half century.

India for the first time were asked to bat first by Englands captain Jos Buttler and Rohit Sharma once again set the temp with two sixes and a four of David Willey hitting the left armer for two sixes and a four. But England set India back with two wickets which had the prize scalp of Virat Kohli who has been Indias finisher this tournament for a duck.

The wicket at Lucknow was sluggish and slow and batting was not easy and Rohit Sharma immediately realised that this was not the pitch he could go after the bowlers the same way as he did in the earlier games. He batted time and played the situation and when he was finally dismissed for 87, this was the first time his strike rate was below hundred, but he had once again given India something to play where barring Suryakumar Yadav all other batters from both sides had failed miserably.

This splendid knock reminded me of the one he had played against England in Chennai on a difficult pitch where everyone struggled but he had scored a hundred which was the difference between the two sides. Rohit Sharma in the post-match said this was one wicket where scoring was not easy as the ball was not coming on to the bat and he had to bat time and build partnership and he did exactly the same putting on 90 runs with KL Rahul which was the key in India crossing 200 runs and reaching 229 which England batsman found hard to negotiate and were bundled out for just 129.

This innings was special for many reasons as this was the first time India were batting first and were tested by the English bowlers, moreover it came when India was in deep waters at being 40/3 at one time and most importantly, he showed the other batsmen how to adapt how to play on such wickets. India is on top of the table with 12 points and undefeated so far because of their top batters Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli has been scoring bulk of the runs. It needs to be seen what happens if both fail how India can cope up.

Written By: Anis Sajan

The views expressed by the author are his personal and the organisation does not owe allegiance to it.