Former India player turned veteran commentator Aakash Chopra has added that Rohit Sharma’s recent poor form with the bat is worrisome for the team. He also added that the Indian captain’s struggles to a couple of interlinked changes in his game. The second ODI of the ongoing three-match series between India and England will be played in Cuttack on Sunday, February 9 as well. Rohit managed only 2 runs off 7 balls in the first ODI in Nagpur as well.
In a video shared on his YouTube channel ‘Aakash Chopra’, he said, “What’s gone wrong with Rohit Sharma? The entire country is worried now because it’s been time. He was India’s highest scorer in the three-match series against Sri Lanka. He was absolutely outstanding. He was batting very well. He was in form and everything was fine. After that, there has been a nosedive. You remember a second-innings knock in Bengaluru and a short knock in Kanpur, but he hasn’t scored runs apart from that. One thing has changed. Actually, two things have changed, and both are interlinked.”
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“Before the 2023 World Cup, his strike rate used to be around 90. Now it has gone close to 120. He used to score a lot of centuries then, the conversion of fifties into hundreds was very good, but after that, a lot of fifties but only two centuries,” Chopra added.
In the same video, Aakash Chopra also added that Rohit Sharma is playing too far away from the body, and that he is getting out through leading-edge strokes.
“He started to meet the ball far away from his body because if you have to hit in the air, you have to meet the ball slightly far. So, the impact point got changed, and because of that, he has started getting a lot of leading edges. When the bat goes far, the other side of that is the more the object starts going away from you, the more your control reduces. The closer you keep it to yourself, the more control you will have. The more a heavy object like a hammer in your hand moves away from your body, the lesser will be your power and control. Your hand will start shaking,” Aakash Chopra concluded.
