T20s affecting Rohit’s Test form: childhood coach Dinesh Lad

Mumbai, September 24

How would Rohit Sharma play in India’s second innings if he gets a chance to bat on Sunday? In the first innings, when India needed him to bat with caution, he got to 35 before throwing it away with an airy shot. The need of the hour was to grind away solidly. India are much more secure in the second innings, but would that make Rohit more or less careful about his shot selection?

As Rohit faces an intense media scrutiny over his Test match temperament, his childhood coach, Dinesh Lad, has said that “Twenty20 cricket is affecting his form”.

“He has had to play too many T20s and ODIs. In limited-overs cricket, if you play your shots early, the ball will reach the boundary line because the white ball travels faster than the red one,” Lad told a Mumbai afternoon newspaper. “Rohit is playing his shots too early... (In India’s first innings), he was early on the shot and his bat shook, that’s why he was caught at long-on,” he said.

“He is also falling prey to media pressure and he can’t handle this. It’s disturbing him mentally. He’s not going out there with a free mind,” Lad added. “Twenty20 cricket is affecting his Test form.”

“He just needs one innings to make a strong comeback. I will call to tell him not to get pressurised, since all is well where his technique is concerned,” Lad said.

It’s an interesting comment by the man who spotted Rohit for the first time when the youngster was barely 11 years old. If Rohit is not able to handle the unavoidable media pressure at age 29, and after nearly 10 years in international cricket, when will he learn to handle it?

Rohit has played 148 ODIs and made 5919 runs in them, averaging 42.08, with a highest of 264. Including the first innings of the Kanpur Test, Rohit has made 981 runs at an average of 32.70, with a top score of 177. But after his first two Test innings, in which he made centuries against West Indies, his average dropped to 23.89, which is certainly not acceptable for a Test batsman. — TNS