I’m no Dhoni or Gayle, my strength is timing, says Rohit Sharma
BCCI
Not being known for his power-hitting abilities like MS Dhoni, Chris Gayle, or AB de Villiers, Rohit Sharma managed to smash 12 sixes in one of India’s biggest grounds, Mohali. After scoring his third ODI double ton, the stand-in skipper admitted that he relies more on his timing than strength.
After a disgraceful loss to Sri Lanka in Dharamsala in the first ODI, India came back to life in Mohali that saw skipper Rohit Sharma leading from the front as he hit an unbeaten 208 to take the game beyond any doubt in the first innings itself. In response to India’s mammoth target of 393, Sri Lanka could only make 251/8, as the hosts leveled the series 1-1 setting up a finale in Vizag.
Post the game India’s head coach Ravi Shastri was seen quizzing Rohit Sharma, who gave a detailed account of his thought process through his double ton.Â
“My strength is time-the-ball. I was just looking to time the ball, get in the line and time. I know I am not like MS Dhoni or Chris Gayle and these kinds of players. I don’t have so much power but I rely on timing. Exactly what I did,” said Rohit when asked about his secret of hitting flawless biggies. Rohit also tops the list of most number of sixes hit by a batsman in 2017.Â
This was Rohit’s third ODI double century which saw the Indian openers dealing with the Sri Lankan pacers quite comfortably after succumbing to their onslaught in the first game. And Rohit revealed the team planning about seeing out the pacers in the initial overs before accelerating the run flow. This pretty much explains India scoring less than 40 runs in the first 10 overs and starting to blast following it.
“It is something we spoke about as a batting unit at the start of this series. Shot selection will be important and we knew that the conditions were a little challenging at the start of the inning. Shikhar (Dhawan) and me knew that once we play out the initial overs, the batting will only get easier. I went through my routine actually I would say and the partnership which was always important,” said Rohit.
“Me and Shikhar kept rotating the strike which was very important. We never allowed the bowler to bowl six balls at one batsman. We always wanted to change and the left-right combination always helps,” he added.
