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'They thought it is his weakness': Former India batter on how Rohit Sharma turned the tables on England with pull shot
While Jasprit Bumrah stole the show with his extraordinary six-wicket haul, India captain Rohit Sharma's unbeaten half century was a major factor as well in India beating England by 10 wickets in the first ODI.
Rohit Sharma gave a reminder of why he is considered one of the greatest exponents of the pull shot and the hook during India's rampant 10-wicket win over England in the first ODI. Rohit scored an unbeaten 76 off 58 balls and 63 percent of his runs came in the fine leg area, to where he pulled and hooked the England fast bowlers whenever they bowled short to him.
Rohit had curtailed the shot during India's Test series in England last year and tended to get out to it often in the matches since but he looked almost unbeatable whenever he played shot on Tuesday. Former India batter Mohammed Kaif said that England may have thought of his tendency to play the shot as a weakness.
"There was a question mark about the pull shot in between, that he was getting out a lot, getting dismissed off bouncers in Test matches, that he can leave it, why is he hitting and getting out," said Kaif in Sony Sports.
"But Rohit Sharma said that it is his shot, he has scored a lot of runs with that and that he will not leave playing the pull shot. So this shows the batter's clear mind. It is fine if he is getting out, but he is getting a lot of runs with that, which he showed today."
Rohit admitted that it is a high-risk shot in the post-match presentation ceremony but he backs himself to play it whenever he gets the chance.
"It is his shot, got dismissed with that in between quite a few times and England thought it is his weakness. They bowled a lot of short balls today because they felt that he is probably getting stuck these days but the counterattack he did against the short ball today, it was fantastic," said Kaif.
"Whenever the ball was pitched up, he defended it. As soon he got the short balls, he scored 63% of his runs towards fine leg. He plays very late, knows how to hit sixes over fine leg. So he played fewer shots down the ground and more behind the wickets on the leg side."
