I felt compelled to do this post as a lot of talk is surfacing about Rohit Sharma’s participation in the upcoming T20I World Cup. His overall batting strike rate in T20 World Cups is less than that of Virat Kohli and one would expect him to follow the same batting approach that he adopted in the recently concluded ODI World Cup. I know a lot of cricket fans are coming to terms with the ODI CWC final loss but I strongly feel the need to get some closure on the disappointment by uncovering and showcasing strategies which don’t seem to be rooted in logic.
During the ODI 2023 Cricket World Cup, a lot of cricketers, both present and past, gave a lot of coverage to Rohit Sharma’s aggressive style of batting and credited him for setting the tone at the very top of the order so that the batters following him could capitalize. Rohit Sharma, very significantly, followed the same batting template in the final of the CWC 2023 World Cup and India ended up on the losing side. One could just say that the better team won and that the game is a team game and that responsibilities are shared equally but let’s look very closely at the context of the game before agreeing to the popular opinion that Rohit Sharma aka Hitman just wanted to “set the momentum” for his team members to take advantage of.
I beg to differ from the popular opinion but before that I would like to emphasize and underline the fact that I am a huge Hitman fan and that my analysis is not intended to put down Rohit Sharma’s batting approach but to just evaluate an alternate approach that could have definitely been adopted.
Let’s look at what happened in the final of the CWC 2023 again: India lost the toss and were put in to bat on a dry pitch that was supposed to be easier to bat on towards the latter part of the day. The Indian cricket team having had access to several data analysts and wealth of experience playing on different pitches (Indian pitches in particular) should have got a clear idea of how the pitch was going to behave in the first half. So, it is imperative to accept and understand that India knew how the pitch would behave.
Now let’s look at the batting approach that India took: Rohit went hammer and tongs as usual and was out to an incredible catch by Travis Head on 47. Was this ultra-aggressive batting approach in World Cup final really necessary considering the nature of the pitch? Earlier, in the league stage, India had played vs England on a similar pitch and Rohit was the top scorer (and Man of the Match) in that match with 87 (Suryakumar Yadav was the only batsman who scored runs at better than 100 SR with a score of 49). On several occasions in the recent past fans have seen regularly that Rohit Sharma is the best Indian batsman on spin friendly pitches. Most Indian commentators and cricket analysts will agree Rohit is more dominant and assured compared to Virat when it comes to playing spin.
Let’s take a slight detour: A few months, ago fans were flummoxed by Suryakumar Yadav’s horrendous form in ODIs and explanations given about his poor form indicated that Surya was more suited to the ultra-short format of the game i.e. T20 and hence was better suited to play down the order where the likelihood of playing many balls was less. In other words, simulating a T20 like situation within an ODI would help SKY plan his innings better. I personally feel that this concept is flawed as any batter who wants to make it big and is selected for a particular format, should tailor his approach according to the game situation and the format length.
Coming back to the analysis on the batting approach in the final, we need to establish some facts :
Rohit Sharma is not a pinch hitter. He is a proper batsman with the record for the highest number of 150s and 200s in ODI cricket. Read the previous sentence again and let that fact register in your mind.
The approach in the final should have been to bat through and try and keep the ball hitting along the ground as much as possible while taking calculated risks. The best batsmen are the ones that need to have more exposure, and everyone knows that including Rohit. Taking singles to get to a milestone may look like the tactics of a selfish batsman (Kohli has been unfairly accused of doing this several times in his ODI career) but when a milestone is achieved, it puts additional mental pressure on the opposition as the awareness that a milestone has been achieved plays on the opposition players’ minds.
Don Bradman famously used to retake his guard once he scored his century.
One could always argue that a sedate approach could have met with a different end also but Rohit’s ultra-aggressive approach was too much of a risk when the World Cup was within grasp. I personally feel that commentators and cricket analysts should stop calling proper batsmen like Rohit Sharma “brave” and “fearless” when they get out after a quick 40 in a 50 overs match. An opening batsman in ODIs has plenty of time to switch gears while batting first to set a total. You generally need to get just 10 to 12 boundary hits while focusing on reducing the number of dot balls faced to score runs at healthy strike rate in ODIs; Rohit being the opener always has the opportunity to face the maximum number of balls available to the batsman and can make always make amends especially in a format like ODIs.
I do wish Rohit Sharma gets an opportunity to captain India one more time in the Champions Trophy 2025 and bats with a more “selfish” approach by getting more hundreds and fifties and play an important role in winning the Champions Trophy for India.