Ind vs SA | Rohit Sharma deserves to get 200, says Shaun Pollock
South African veteran Shaun Pollock was very pleased with Rohit Sharma's double hundred and stated that the hitman deserved to achieve this feat. Rohit Sharma was tipped to open for India in Test cricket from a long time and finally grabbed his opportunity scoring three hundreds in four innings.
Promoting Rohit Sharma to the opening position is turning out to be a masterstroke by the Indian team management, as he has now amassed three centuries in four innings as an opener, the third of which was a massive double hundred. South African pace veteran Shaun Pollock was extremely enthralled with Rohit's batting masterclass and believed that he was very very proper and selective in his shot selection and was determined to make it a big hundred. He felt that South African batting getting bounced out by Indian fast bowlers on Indian pitches was something that he had never seen before
"It is a bit of a turn-around from what you expect when our team tours India. You could just see the confidence from India.2-0 up in the series, posting a score of 500 again and then came out and bounced out our batsman in the short burst at the end of the day," Shaun Pollock said in a conversation with Harsha Bhogle on Cricbuzz.
"After the first Test where he got 176, he might have thought he was silly to miss out on a 200 and might have said to himself that 'if I get another opportunity, I am not letting it go. He was very vigilant and was very watchful and selective on his way from 130 to 200. till played the part that was required. He is a guy who deserves to get a two hundred. He has now ticked the box in Test cricket as well," he said.
He praised Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav on their fiery start coming out all guns blazing and not giving the batsmen any loose delivery to get settled.
"There was plenty of energy. Shami and Yadav were right on the money. That's what you expect from your fast bowlers to drive home the advantage after the batsmen have put the runs on the board," he said.
On the South African bowling attack, Pollock said that inexperience played a big part in their poor performance. He also felt that it was extremely important to make the second new ball count the same way in which they picked a couple of wickets from the first new ball. Spinner Linde was playing his first Test and there was no bowler with enough experience in these conditions except Kagiso Rabada. So he believes they could not have done anything differently and that they have to take this as a learning curve for the future.
"They had to get those early wickets and make the new ball count. It is a bit of an inexperienced bowling line up. I don't think they could have done anything different," he concluded.
