Older Rohit Sharma switches back to steady-start approach that had helped him score double hundreds

The tunes were reminiscent of the past, even though he failed to convert this to a hundred. Beaten first ball, a Mitchell Starc full ball that he drove and missed, he was sedate and watchful, blocking the ones at his stumps, resisting his temptation to drive, and leaving the ones outside the off-stump. He sometimes shuffled too across, but that was to merely disarray the bowlers’ lines. He waited for the gift balls; the first boundary arrived off the 12th ball, when Starc drifted into his pads. A flurry of fours didn’t ensue. He shrunk his bat away from risks and his eyes away from the scoreboard. The first 40 balls yielded only 14 runs. It has been the other way around, often these days. The fifty arrived off the 74th ball.

But in the past, this was his template. It’s the similar span he completed his first block of 50s in all three of his double hundreds (72 balls en route 264 in Kolkata, 71 for his 209 in Bengaluru and 65 along his 208 not out in Mohali). The starts were cautious. The acceleration was incremental before it hit a dizzying crescendo in the death overs. “It’s my style of play,” he would say after the Mohali game. “I start off very slow because I like analysing,” Rohit said. “I like to analyse the situation and conditions. In all the three double hundreds, it is a very similar pattern that you will see… started off slow, then picked up the pace and then in the end I accelerated,” he explained.

Low-risk, high yield

The approach was low-risk and high yield. Between 2013 and 2019, he racked up 11 scores over 140. But times changed. He became the captain; like good leaders, he selflessly thrust it on himself to embrace the aggressor role at the start in batting-friendly climes of the subcontinent. It’s little coincidence that in his uber-aggressive phase, the hundreds, let alone the monstrous ones, became rare. Since March 2021, 50 innings fetched him only three hundreds, whereas his strike rate soared from 90 to 112. For the cause of the collective, he sacrificed the pull of the milestones. The hundreds did not matter then; the vibes and tempo the cameos generated suffices. But times changed again; as did the roles. He was no longer the captain; he needed every possible run to prolong his international career, without tempting the selectors to wield the axe. So he shed the skin and wore the old one. The costume did not fit all too snuggly; he must have felt tight at the edges. But he gradually breathed in the comfort of his familiar clothes, those that he wore during his glory days.

Rohit Sharma’s approach in the second ODI vs Australia was low-risk and high yield. (PHOTO: AP)

It’s the version of Rohit the situation in Australia, and whenever India plays on seam-assisting surfaces, demanded. The Rohit that bats long and deep, the one that constructs sky-risers and kills the game, the one that lays the foundations and rattles through the floors. Perhaps, it’s his own understanding that he can’t have a one-line approach to every condition. It’s typical of batsmen to dust up the methods of their most glorious phase when passing through a trouble period.

The motivation then would have been to mute the critics that complain about his tendency to flatter and deceive. Now, after proving everything and establishing a legacy, it’s for those baying for his farewell. If Rohit indeed features in the 2027 World Cup, it would be on his capacity to score big hundreds than his ability to provide brisk starts

To his relief, Rohit realised that he could still flex the old game. Occasional seizures of adventure aside, he shed all the risks. He did not manufacture the pulls, but waited for them. A reason the pull had often let him down was that he pulled the un-pullable balls. The ones speeding towards his neck, the ones pitched on the good length band of the hard-length frequency, pulling out of instinct and ego. Here, he waited for the bowlers to err. He targeted Mitchell Owen, not too brisk, sharp, or clever. The twin sixes came after a boundary-drought of 20 balls.

A stage of steady acceleration followed, the curves and bumps negotiated, he could cruise in fifth gear. It’s the time when he motors along with singles and twos, besides striking a four or two when the opportunities arrive, or to dishevel the bowler’s length. So when Adam Zampa buzzed one past his outside edge, he employed the sweep next ball. Post completing his half-century, he stepped out of the crease and lofted the leg-spinner inside-out over the cover fielder for a four, his sweetest stroke of the day. The lone stroke of rage came next, when he slapped Cooper Connolly for a four through extra over. When Connolly strayed to the body, he swept the left-arm spinner for another four. In 15 balls, he collected 17 runs and seemed destined for a hundred before he misplaced a pull to the fielder’s throat. He was aghast, because often when he gets those starts, he composes a mammoth one.

But when the angst sinks in, he would have found his vision for the future, though it took him reverting to the past.