Rohit Sharma — The white-ball colossus lets his bat do all the talking

Just a couple of deliveries into Rohit’s brief stay at the crease in the Trivandrum ODI against the West Indies, a certain observation about his batting seemed to be gathering momentum, ‘Rohit Sharma is a fraction too late on the ball.’ Although it could have been down to his relatively late-downswing activation, with the commentators stamping the words — ‘lazy elegance’ — for his batsmanship.

When he was dismissed for 32, those few whispers about his reflexes grew further. Rohit, however, has given a fitting riposte to all his doubters by crunching two hundreds and a 92 in his last four ODIs. Even more than his hundred in Guwahati, Rohit’s recent effort in Chandigarh would have cheered up the Indian camp and his fans.

The eventual scorecard, with the West Indies chasing down a 352-run target, would suggest that the pitch was another of those IndyCar Motorways. But while excavating more information, it could be noticed that those scores were down to the West Indies dropping a slew of catches, and the dew making an impact in the second innings. In fact, it offered a fair amount of seam movement in the first hour of the game, with Jayden Seales accounting for a couple of early wickets. Ruturaj Gaikwad also could have found himself back in the hut, but for fluffed chances. In such circumstances, Rohit’s innings stood out.

With the conditions offering enough assistance for the pacemen, Rohit was prepared to bide his time; offering a lifted or dead bat to some of the offerings. It was juxtaposed by a few mistimed lofts and an overturned LBW decision via the DRS.

The biggest takeaway through that phase of his innings was perhaps his early back-foot activation, in order to either cover the off-stump or to get to his front foot out to the pitch of the ball. It once more dispelled doubts that ‘Rohit was a little too late on the ball.’ Once Rohit found his gears, coupled with less movement on display, he essayed an archetypical innings.

The above-mentioned paragraph serves as a microcosm for the overall template of his knock. It also provides us with a macro picture that Rohit still has the required nuts and bolts in his game to negate the threat of the moving ball in the prevailing conditions in the next World Cup. Alas! The crux of Rohit having to wade through the initial 10-15 overs would be confined to the cricket cognoscenti. Simply put, his knock would be largely looked through the prism of the final scorecard.

Rohit, for one, wouldn’t care about all the outside noise. Instead, he would be quietly pleased about how at the age of 39 he was able to circumvent the new-ball threat. The former India skipper has a dream, and that is to hoist the 50-over World Cup trophy at the age of 40.

C.W Lewis once said, “You are never too old to set a new goal or to dream a new dream.” The British author’s quote seems to be running through the veins of one certain white-ball colossus.

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