Birmingham: The game of cricket has different types of batsmen, but the way Rohit Sharma executes crafty strokes, mixed with style and elegance, feels like pure symphony.
Rohit’s rich vein of form has been a feature in Cricket World Cup 2019. He may not have been fluent at the beginning of his innings, but he has found his groove rather quickly. Rohit began the tournament with an unbeaten 122 against South Africa. A half-century against Australia followed, before Rohit posted hundreds in the victory over Pakistan and in the defeat to England. Rohit’s stunning summer continued in India’s penultimate World Cup group match against Bangladesh on Tuesday, with the opening batsman making 104 off 92 balls.
The innings saw Rohit soar to the top of the batting charts for this World Cup and join Kumar Sangakkara and Ricky Ponting in registering five World Cup tons. Unsurprisingly, India legend Sachin Tendulkar holds the record with six. Rohit has also equalled the record for the most World Cup hundreds at a single tournament, with Sangakkara also making four in the 2015 edition in Australia.
The Mumbai batsman on Tuesday raced to his 26th ODI hundred to become the first batsman to hit four centuries in the ongoing ICC Cricket World Cup 2019.
It also meant that Rohit now has the best* hundreds per innings in the World Cup - five in 15 - better than the three batsmen who have five or more tons - Sachin Tendulkar - 6/44, Ricky Ponting - 5/42 and Sangakkara - 5/35.
Brisk start
Rohit, popularly known as the Hitman for his audacious stroke-making abilities, opened the batting with KL Rahul after Virat Kohli won the toss and opted to bat first. Rohit and Rahul stitched a tournament-high opening stand of 176. The previous high was 160 by England openers Jason Roy and Jonny Bairstow against India at the same venue. This was also India’s highest opening partnership in World Cup, beating 174 by Rohit and Shikhar Dhawan against Ireland at Hamilton in 2015.
The right-handed batsman overtook Australian opener David Warner as the leading scorer of the tournament. Rohit now has 521 runs in seven innings as against Warner’s 516 from eight innings.
Besides, Rohit became only the second Indian batsman after Tendulkar to score 500+ runs in a World Cup. Tendulkar scored 673 in 2003 and 523 in 1996.
Deadly duo
Virat Kohli (408 runs in seven matches), and Rohit Sharma are the only two Indians on the list for most runs. This is where things get interesting—the Indian team has scored 2,030 runs in seven matches. Rohit and Virat account for 47 per cent of those runs (952 runs).
With Kohli accounting for 22.2 per cent of India’s runs, there is not even an iota of doubt how dependent this batting line-up on these two batsmen. Perhaps, the loss to England painted an even clearer picture.
They like to bat deep, and now in Shikhar Dhawan’s absence, perhaps they want to bat even deeper. And with the unpredictability surrounding India’s middle order, the result of every innings is dependent on how these two fare.
Both Rohit and Kohli are fighters though, and responsible batsmen. They are not going to walk away from a duel, and this gives a new angle to their relationship, on and off the field. There is also the leadership angle.
From a fans’ point of view, it is staggering when they are on song. When dismissed, it is worrying too. Overly relying on two batsmen is not how you win a World Cup.
Renewed maturity
Try telling that to Rohit, and he probably won’t agree. At the moment, he is man-on-a-mission, intent on taking as much responsibility of scoring runs. After the game against South Africa, where he batted in third gear on a tough pitch, Rohit spoke about the maturity factor of playing 200-plus ODIs.
“It has to come in some time,” he said, with a smile, as if not expecting the question.
It wasn’t an obvious one. Over the last couple of years, there has been a greater propensity in Rohit’s gameplay of making it count. Get a start, make it a half-century, then a hundred, and then a daddy one - that’s how he has three ODI double-hundreds to his name. It takes a different dimension when batting second - as a set, in-form batsman.
Through Rohit’s ODI career, India have won 45 matches whenever he has scored a half-century. He averages 155.41 in these wins, thanks to those double hundreds of course. Further reduce the time-frame herein - in the last two years, since the 2017 Champions Trophy, India have won 20 ODIs wherein Rohit has crossed the 50-mark. His average in all these wins is a staggering 181.33.
Rohit is an enigma, and he continued to burnish his reputation with some breathtaking batting displays in England!
