Former Indian assistant coach Abhishek Nayar feels Rohit Sharma would be disappointed with his shot after the first ODI against England at Edgbaston, Birmingham on Tuesday. Rohit danced down the track against Sam Curran but holed out to England skipper Harry Brook at mid-off after scoring 11 runs off 21 balls.
India was chasing a below-par score of 259 runs, and thus there was no pressure of the required run rate. Rohit’s bat also turned a bit in his hands and thus he could not get the right timing.
Abhishek Nayar said on JioHotstar, “He will be disappointed with the way he got out. There will be reflection. He would go to the room and think about it. He watches a lot of videos, so he will watch his videos. He will pay attention to his mindset. If he had seen the T20 series and after playing this game, one thing he would have realized is that you have to give yourself time.”
Nayar added that Rohit Sharma’s shot selection was not up to the mark, and thus it led to his dismissal.
“You will have to play out the four or five overs of Jofra Archer and Josh Tongue. Once you get past that, things get easier. You will have to search for opportunities against Sam Curran. Going over the top using your feet may not be the right tactical move. If he had watched Shubman Gill attentively, more runs were scored square of the wicket,” Nayar observed.
On the other hand, the former Indian batter also decoded Virat Kohli’s dismissal. The veteran batter was plumbed in front of the wickets by Jofra Archer on a full delivery.
“Even Virat Kohli would have expected this. He would have anticipated that teams are going to go fuller to him. I wouldn’t say he (Archer) set him up, but he started with a shorter ball, misdirected that ball, and the follow-up ball was very different. Doesn’t matter how great a batter you are, whenever the ball seams in at high speed from a fuller length, it’s always hard,” he responded.
The KKR head coach highlighted that Kohli was not in a wrong position but he was beaten by the seam movement.
“He wasn’t in the wrong position. The position was perfect. Weight transfer, head on top of the ball, but because of the seam that Jofra Archer had, that’s where that X-factor, and that is why he could actually go through Virat Kohli’s defense. He gets out on the outside edge. Someone dismisses Virat Kohli rarely on the inside edge,” Nayar observed.
The second ODI between India and England will be played at Sophia Gardens, Cardiff, on Thursday.
