India captain Rohit Sharma ended his silence on Virat Kohli’s struggles with deliveries outside the off stump. In his unique style, Rohit first broke into laughter and then replied to the reporter using his own words when asked about Kohli’s form in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Barring the century in the second of the first Test in Perth, Kohli has not at his best in this series. More than the low scores, Kohli’s repeated mode of dismissals has become the most significant cause of concern for Indian fans.
The former India captain has been trapped with the outside off-stump line far too often for comfort in recent times. Scott Boland, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins have all troubled Kohli with a good mix of good length and fuller length deliveries outside the off stump.
However, like the legendary Sunil Gavaskar, Rohit also believes Kohli will find a way to score runs. “You only said he is a modern-day great. Modern-day greats will figure out their way or the path (to overcome issues),” Rohit said in the press-match press conference at the MCG on Tuesday.
The Boxing Day Test is just a couple of days away and with the series evenly poised at 1-1 after the first three Tests, it is imperative for India’s batters to put their hand up.
Rohit tightlipped about India’s batting order
Kohli is not the only one having issues in Australia. The captain himself has been horribly short of runs in Test cricket this year. If the away-going deliveries have brought about Kohli’s downfall, it’s the in-swingers that have given Rohit sleepless nights. The fact that he didn’t open the batting in the last two Tests has also not helped his case.
“Let’s not worry about that (the batting order). I think ‘who bats where?’ is something that we need to figure out within ourselves. It’s not something I should be discussing at every press conference. Whatever it takes for our team to look good or gives the best chance to succeed, we will do that,” Rohit said.
When asked about Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill, Rohit said the team management doesn’t want to complicate things by giving them too much to worry about.
“See, as I told you, all these youngsters – Rishabh, Gill, Jaiswal, all these youngsters are in the same boat. We don’t want to complicate what they are doing. They know what they are expected to do.
“Our job here is to keep talking to them about small things like match awareness. I don’t think we need to tell them more and complicate stuff,” he added.
