Rohit Sharma 3.0 takes guard: Under Shubman Gill, Gautam Gambhir, opener reprises role of being a calculated accumulator of runs | Cricket News – The Times of India

In the 268 times that he has batted in ODIs, Rohit Sharma has faced 100 or more balls only 32 times. It’s a remarkable statistic for someone with 11,370 runs, 33 tons, and 59 fifties.What is more surprising is that since he assumed the white-ball captaincy of India full-time in 2022, Rohit has batted 100-plus balls only twice. Once in Lucknow in the 2023 World Cup against England and on Saturday versus Australia at Sydney. During his battling 73 at Adelaide, where his first 25 runs came at less than a strike rate of 50, he faced 97 balls.

The Rohit Sharma we have witnessed in Australia seems to be a mirror image of the Rohit Sharma we saw from 2013 to 2020, and especially during the 2019 World Cup in England, where he was watchful early on in the seamer friendly conditions and explosive towards the latter half as the ball got older.Once he became captain though, Rohit chose to sacrifice consistency for higher impact as he wanted to give the middle order the cushion of batting without the pressure of the run rate, especially when India batted first. The tactic worked in the 2023 World Cup, where Rohit scored electric 40s and batters like Kohli, Gill, and Shreyas Iyer batted around him.His critics though felt that the ploy was actually a smokescreen as he did not have the mental toughness to run hard and graft in tough situations and that eventually triggered his demise as a Test batter.Now, no longer captain, Rohit seems to have embraced the role of a senior pro and appears more willing to grind it out, bat time, and wait for his moment to attack. The improved fitness has also helped him focus on singles and twos, which are vital for a batter once the field is spread.Analysing his knocks during the series, Rohit, who was named player of the match and player of the series, said, “In Australia, things are not going to be easy, these are quality bowlers. You’ve got to understand the situation, understand the conditions and see what best you can do. That is what I was trying to do whenever I had the opportunity in the middle.”

During his two 50-plus knocks in Adelaide and Sydney, Rohit seldom charged at the bowlers, like he did from 2023 to 2025, and very rarely tried to hoick to mid-wicket. He focused more on retaining shape, timing the ball and playing with the straight bat.While he did not get much game time as he, like Virat Kohli, plays only the ODI format now, Rohit trained hard under the guidance of former Mumbai teammate and India batting coach Abhishek Nayar before travelling to Australia. “I haven’t played for a long time, but I had good prep before coming here,” he said.