India’s best man vs Australia

Subhash Rajta

Tribune News Service

Chennai, September 15

Australia bring out the best in Rohit Sharma. Sounds clichéd but it’s right on the money. When it comes to competing against the hard-nosed Australians, the Indian opener takes his game several notches higher. In just 23 matches against Australia, Sharma has hit five hundreds, including a double, the most he has hit against any country; and he averages an impressive 68.26 against them, again his best by some distance against the major competitors.

It puts Sharma in a very special club; after all, there aren’t many batsmen around who save their best for the Australians. In fact, it was against the Aussies that Sharma established himself as an opener four years back in 2013. MS Dhoni, the then Indian skipper, had promoted Sharma to the top of the order earlier that year, and Sharma had grabbed the opportunity with both hands. But it wasn’t until the home series against Australia later that year that he really came into his own as an opener — in the run fest the series turned out to be, Sharma amassed 491 runs from six games, at a whopping average of 122.75 and strike rate of 108.63. 

An icing on the cake was his two hundreds in the series, an unbeaten 143 and a magnificent 209 — these two knocks sort of unlocked his latent destructive abilities, demonstrated by an incredible 264, the highest individual score in ODIs, about a year later against Sri Lanka at the Eden Gardens.

As the Australians are back for another ODI series, beginning here on Sunday, is the opener ready to hit the high notes again? And what exactly pushes him to give his best against them? 

“Nothing in particular, to be honest,” said Sharma. “Somehow I have really managed (to play) well against these guys. It’s great to have that sort of performances against one of the best teams and it makes me feel good.”

Partner doesn’t matter

Much of his success has come playing alongside left-handed opener Shikhar Dhawan, who will miss the first three games due to personal reasons. Dhawan’s presence at the other end gives Sharma two distinct advantages: One, being a right-left combination, the bowlers struggle to get their line and length right; two, Dhawan’s attacking game gives him time to settle down without having to worry about picking up quick runs in the Powerplay overs. 

While acknowledging that Dhawan will be missed for his form and ability to score quick runs, Sharma said it wouldn’t make any difference to his approach and gameplan. “The partner doesn’t matter, to be honest,” he said. “It’s what the condition has to offer, what sort of pitch you are playing on. At the end of the day, you have to give your team a good start. If I see someone struggling at the other end, I will have to take up the role, and if I’m struggling, he’ll take up that role... It’s all about complementing each other.”

Sharma is equally unflustered by the additional responsibility that the position of the vice-captain brings along. Having captained Mumbai to three IPL titles – the most by any skipper – Sharma knows a thing or two about leadership and mentoring youngsters in the team. “I don’t see anything has changed with my (new) role. It’s just a bit more official now, so I have to be around whenever Virat wants and need to complement him. But that’s something that was happening before as well,” he said.

With such clarity of thoughts, the form he’s in, and the record he boasts of against them, Sharma looks set to run the Aussies ragged one more time.

Oz call up Handscomb as cover for Finch 

chennai: Australia have called up batsman Peter Handscomb to join the ODI squad in India as cover for injured opener Aaron Finch. Finch was rested from Australia’s warm-up match on Tuesday due to a calf injury, which he suffered playing for Surrey in England last month.  “Aaron re-aggravated his pre-existing calf injury during warm-up at training yesterday,” Australian physiotherapist Alex Kountouris said in a statement. — Reuters