Rohit Sharma is relentless in England: In a sad turn of events, the Indian batting line-up has been out of shape for a while now. Especially with multiple collapses in a span of the last year that included two below-100 all-outs, the Indian batting has been struggling vehemently in the longest format of the sport.
Things have now caught a blazing fire, with India’s batting laid bare in a span of just three days. To add to India’s woes, Virat Kohli has been knocked out in a similar fashion in all the three Test matches so far in the ongoing India England series. To aggravate matters, Ollie Robinson struck the telling blow by revealing their plan to get Kohli dismissed.
Ideally, the style that has proved to be Kohli’s unravelling is by bowling on the off-stump, especially around the line of the fourth or the fifth stump and angle that in. Every single time the ball has wheeled in, Kohli has dropped himself down to play it, and it has been nicked off to the keeper or the slip.
Sadly, it isn’t Kohli who has been out of shape and got out in a similar fashion, it has been almost the entire middle-order falling prey to the English bowlers in the same way. If we tend to dissect the Indian batting line-up’s woes and misgivings, there will be one common problem that will hog all the limelight.
The Indian middle-order has been weirdly vulnerable to swing. Anything that has been swinging close to the off-stump has forced their hand and the resultant nicks have been pouched by the keeper or the slip cordon.
There is just one man who has risen above this weakness and managed to survive, belting out one masterclass after the other. It is none other than Rohit Sharma. Despite being an extremely aggressive batsman, he has shown patience which is akin to Rahul Dravid in committing to his shots.
Unlike any other Indian batter, he has not played on the front foot and has been very late in stroke-making. Ideally, to gauge the movement of the ball, one will have to wait instead of hurriedly putting forth your foot in the stroke.
That is why English bowlers have had trouble getting rid of the Hitman. On top of that, the cover drive isn’t really his style. He has a knack for square cuts, square drives and most importantly, pulls and hooks.
On top of that, Sharma has razor-sharp reflexes. That is what helps him to get on top of the ball despite not being a hurried pursuer. Also, he has shown the courage to lift his bat, whenever the ball has angled in from the corridor of uncertainty on the off-stump.
Sharma’s impressive footwork has also assisted the Hitman in quickly adjusting his stance to the bowler’s exploits and impart him more time to be comfortable around the flying balls.
He is also an epic player of spin and uses the sweep shot brilliantly, that has not allowed Moeen Ali to flap his wings against him either. Sharma has been blazing with the brilliance of a lodestar for an otherwise marred Indian batting line-up in the longest format of the game.
KL Rahul was seen using the same tactics in the first two games until Anderson deployed a different strategy to get rid of him early in the third Test. Three things that set Rohit Sharma apart from the other Indian batters are his excellent game reading, his aquiline reflexes and his ability to play late under English conditions.
He has managed a brilliant 83 and 59 in the series so far. More importantly, he has shown some sturdy resistance to battle the menacing quartet of the English fast bowlers.
English conditions were never too friendly for the batters. Even the best of the batters have struggled under such glacial conditions. Rohit Sharma has so far blazed the trail for the Indian batsmen to follow, and they will do better to get themselves adjusted to such hostile situations if they are to wipe out the agony of 14 long years.
