Former India player Aakash Chopra has said that the way Rohit Sharma got out in India’s first innings of the second Test against New Zealand in Pune was similar to some of his recent dismissals as well. He added that the dismissal cannot be attributed to an issue against Tim Southee as the Indian captain got out similarly to Taskin Ahmed recently.

During a discussion on Colors Cineplex, Chopra said, “Of course, Tim Southee has dismissed him twice in this series, so it will seem like it’s a problem against him. However, he got out similarly to Taskin (Ahmed). Remember, it was a similar ball, it was the Chennai ground, second innings and the catch went behind. There also we said that the ball was very good. If we compare with that, this ball didn’t move that much sideways. This has not happened for the first time and has happened more in the recent past.”

In the same discussion, Aakash Chopra also shared that Rohit Sharma’s lack of front-foot movement is causing his body to open up.

“I think the issue, which Rohit will have to address himself, is that the front foot is not going anywhere. You are just standing in your crease and when the front foot is stuck and the back foot doesn’t move, there can be only one reaction to the ball, that is your body will open up. When your body opens up like that, it looks bad as well,” he expressed.

“So he will have to address this, as he did in Bengaluru’s second innings. He was taking his foot slightly more forward there as compared to the first innings. You might see him doing that here as well in the second innings but when he got out, the ball looked better than it actually was because the body had opened up,” Aakash Chopra concluded.