Did Rohit Sharma's Test success lead to lukewarm returns in T20?

Virat Kohli needs to work on his power game, Rohit Sharma may have to focus more on his fitness - Sanjay Manjrekar analyses threadbare why India went so far away from the pre-T20 World Cup script.

Imagine that Rohit Sharma has got off to a flyer against Pakistan, Rahul soon joins in, India get 60 in the first six overs. Batters to come now are upbeat, they all come out to bat with a sense of positivity and India get over 180.

Rohit Sharma has scored 0 and 14 in the two matches of the T20 World Cup.  (Getty)

Pakistan with their sketchy batting history even in this tournament are now set to chase over 180, and with all due respect to Pakistan, that’s a win for India. India started off their T20 World Cup campaign in great style, just like we imagined, considering the overall ability of this Indian team.

Now, this is not a wild fantasy, this is a perfectly plausible scenario to envision, applying the term I like a lot - cricketing logic. Obviously, it didn’t quite turn out that way. Now let’s apply the same cricketing logic to why India went so far away from the pre-tournament script.

Rohit came into the World Cup clearly out of T20 form in domestic cricket (read IPL), which I have put down to fatigue. Rohit was simply sensational in England, passing the stiffest Test there is for any Asian-bred batsman; he played a game alien to his nature and I wonder if that came into play somewhere during this long patch of lukewarm returns in T20s.

Also, I am thinking watching him these days, that with advancing age Rohit may have to focus a lot more than he does already on his physical fitness; that is if he has to make an impact as a top-order batter in all three formats.

KL Rahul = Class.

But he is also a batter who is somewhat temperamental. He goes through one whole season of IPL piling up runs at a strike rate of 150, and then the same volume of runs (suggesting good form) next IPL come at a strike rate of 120. I find that strange and unique to Rahul.

Rahul’s long term success will depend on his temperament. It’s the only thing that will get him to average 50 instead of in the 30s he does in Tests and generally be more consistent in the other international formats too, for he was the only batter in the top seven who came into this World Cup with red hot T20 form.

Virat is not the T20 player he was. Whether it’s a temporary thing we will have to wait and see, but if I was his coach I would get him to work on his power game. It seems to have diminished a little. That is, if he is still striving for T20 excellence.

Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan, faces of India’s new generation of batters, failed to take their game from domestic cricket (IPL) to marquee international cricket. A common phenomenon and it’s very early days for them in international cricket. So let’s wait and see where their international careers go.

Rishabh Pant is clearly out of form. T20 form. He has a high risk game, extremely high risk in fact. Even if his self-confidence goes down a wee bit it will affect his shot execution; if you remember, he mis-executed a lot of his big shots while carving a place in the Indian team.

That was, as you would expect, a slightly under-confident young Pant trying to make it to the higher grade. It happened to all of us. So, either Pant conditions himself mentally to remain very confident or he tones his game down a little till his confidence is sky high so he does not mishit as much.

If the team management wants Jadeja in the playing XI, he must prove he is worthy of batting in the top six like a proper T20 batter. For we have seen like against New Zealand on Sunday night, his bowling is just not good enough for him to be considered a bowling all-rounder.

India also need to start playing pure T20 seamers. Like Virat, I think Shami’s best format is Tests. And with so much cricket in bubbles these days, Shami’s brilliance as a seamer could be used more fruitfully if he is played in a format where he is likely to make a greater impact.

In my mind these are all long term, future plans but some of it could be put to practice as early as the next game, like having Deepak Chahar from the standbys playing and the other Chahar (Rahul) coming in as the second spinner and see if Jadeja adds greater value to the team as a batting all-rounder. In the KUL-CHA days, India just won more games, simple!