No one owns a batting position: Rohit

Colombo, august 31

There was a lot of criticism from all quarters when Rohit Sharma was moved down the batting order from one drop to No. 5 but the talented right-hander is of the opinion that “no one owns any particular batting slot” in this team.

Rohit ended the Test series as the second highest run-getter (202 runs) behind skipper Virat Kohli with his second half-century in the series.

Asked about his preferred batting slot, Rohit said, “If you ask anyone, they are not going to say this is my number. Nowhere it’s written in the world that No. 4 belongs to this person, No. 3 belongs to that person. As a batsman, you want to bat as up the order as possible to get more opportunities, face more balls and score big runs. But the management felt I should bat at No. 5 and they came and spoke to me and I was okay with whatever they wanted. I cannot have my own preference,” Rohit said.

With Cheteshwar Pujara scoring a career-changing century, the pressure is back on Sharma but he is not unduly perturbed. “The pressure, I feel, will be on the management and the captain to decide the playing XI, not on me. I have to play my game when I get an opportunity. That’s how I look at it.”

Rohit made it clear that he won’t stop pulling the short balls from the pacers. “If you look at the game carefully, on the first morning, I played that shot I think off Nuwan Pradeep. I played a very similar shot which got me four runs. That’s how it works. That’s my shot, and I play that all the time,” he said. — PTI