Want India middle order to prepare for ‘10 for 3’ situations, says Rohit Sharma

The BCCI appointed Rohit Sharma as India’s new ODI captain, and he will take reins from Virat Kohli during the upcoming tour of South Africa. Last month, the Indian opener was handed over the T20I captaincy from Kohli, and started off his leadership role with a clean sweep against New Zealand in a three-match T20I series at home. 

Virat Kohli was appointed as India’s white-ball captain in 2017, with MS Dhoni stepping down from the role in 2017, and had great success in bilateral series across formats. However, the right-hand batsman failed to claim an ICC trophy for the India senior Men's cricket team. 

Meanwhile, Rohit Sharma stated that he wants the middle order to prepare for the worst situations like 10 for 3. The Indian opener also pointed out the similarities in India’s defeat in the recent ICC tournaments.

“We have to prepare for the worst. We've to prepare for the situation when the team is 10/3. That is how I want to move forward. There is nowhere written that if you're 10/3, you can't get 180 or 190. I want the guys to prepare in that fashion,” Rohit told Boria Majumdar on his show 'Backstage with Boria'.

“In the Champions Trophy (2017), 2019 World Cup and even this World Cup as well, it was that initial phase of the game where we lost. That is something I'll keep in mind,” he added.

“Let's say you're playing a semi-final, we're 10/2 in the first two overs, what do we do? What is the plan? I want to put ourselves in that situation and see how we respond to that,” Rohit said.

Rohit further added that he wants Team India to test itself in the matches ahead of the T20 World Cup next year in Australia.

"We got some games before the World Cup and try and test ourselves. If you look at it, we see a similarity in all World Cup games that we lost. The 2 Pakistan games and the one New Zealand game in the three ICC tournaments.

“But that can happen. I understand that the quality of bowling is exceptional. It has happened three times, I hope it doesn't happen for the fourth time. We will hopefully keep preparing for that,” said Rohit.

Rohit, who has also been named as the Test team's vice-captain, will begin his full-time white-ball captaincy stint with the three-match ODI series in South Africa in January.