Never found it tough bowling to Virat or Rohit, it's easy to get Rohit out, claims Mohammad Amir
Rohit Sharma celebrating a well-made century against Pakistan in 2019 World Cup
|Mohammed Amir courted a potential controversy after he claimed that he has never found it difficult bowling to either Virat Kohli or Rohit Sharma, and in fact, he finds Rohit easy to get out. However, he added that Virat is still a tad difficult to get out given he revels under pressure.
Bilateral cricket between India and Pakistan has turned scarce over the years with political tensions prevailing between both countries. While India have been able to dominate the Men in Green in World Cup events, they had lost out the 2017 Champions Trophy finale to the arch-rivals, which remains arguably Pakistan's greatest victory of the last decade. One of the major protagonists in that finale triumph was Mohammad Amir, who sent back India's world-class top-order consisting of Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli inside the first nine overs in a big chase of 339, which India lost ultimately.
Amir's battles with Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, two of the world's best white-ball batsmen, has been well-documented. The left-armer has been able to do well against both of them with Virat averaging 20 against the pacer, getting out twice to him while Rohit averages 43 against him with an SR of 60.56 in One-day internationals. When it comes to T20 internationals, Rohit has scored seven runs against Amir and has got out twice while he's yet to dismiss Virat in the shorter version though the Indian has a poor SR of 84.21.
Reflecting on bowling to the star Indian duo, Amir stated that he has never found it hard to bowl to either Virat or Rohit though Virat is tad tougher of the two.
“I haven't found it tough bowling to either. In fact, I find it easy to bowl to him (Rohit). I feel that I can get him out both ways. He struggles against the in-swinger from a left-armer and as well as against the ball that goes away early on. I may say that I find bowling to Virat slightly tougher because he revels in pressure situations, but otherwise, I've never found it difficult bowling to either of the two,” Amir told Cricwick, reported HT.
Amir had taken retirement from international cricket last year after being in constant run-ins with Pakistan's team management. Talking about that, he said that match-winners should never be doubted due to their stats as when a player hits a dry spell, he needs to be backed by the management.
“Never doubt those players who have won games for you in the past. Never doubt their ability due to statistics. Rather than focusing too much on statistics, you must see whether the player has the ability to win games for Pakistan from difficult situations. When a player is in a bad phase, that is when the team management and fans need to back him the most,” Mohammad Amir said.
“When a player doesn't perform even after getting ample chances, the management must tell the player to go back to domestic cricket and perform so that he could make a comeback into the national team. But here (in Pakistan) they say his career is over, he is not good enough anymore,” he added.
