Our Bureau
Mumbai
After retiring from the T20Is last year after he won the World Cup 2024, Rohit Sharma has announced that he will be hanging his boots in the longest format of the game. With Sharma retiring, there are a lot of questions surrounding the Indian cricket team and his future with the One-day Internationals team.
In a recent conversation with journalist Vimal Kumar, Rohit spoke about his plans going forward in the ODI format. Rohit clarified that although he has retired from the other two formats, he will continue playing ODIs for the foreseeable future. He has also emphasized the fact that he is well aware of when to walk away but at this particular moment he has the same drive and hunger in the format and yearns to contribute more.
After the failure in the 2022 T20 World Cup, the world has seen a different Rohit Sharma with his batting approach. The Indian opener started attacking the bowlers a lot more from the first ball and played more intent-driven knocks than before. He emphasized that he has started striking more from the start of the innings rather than his earlier approach where he took his time in the first 10 overs.
Rohit said, “Earlier, I would play 30 balls in the first 10 overs and be at just 10 runs. But if I play 20 balls now, why can’t I score 30, 35, or even 40 runs? And on the days when I get going, hitting the accelerator, scoring 80 runs in the first 10 overs isn’t bad at all. That’s how I think now.”
He also emphasized that he believes that he has scored the runs he was meant to and now he plays with a different mindset. But he also mentioned that this doesn’t mean he is going to take things for granted and his only focus won’t be on giving good starts but rather optimising those starts to build the innings forward.
Sharma has been the key performer for India in the past decade. The Indian opener has the third most centuries in the history of ODI cricket only behind Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli and is the only batsman to score 3 double hundreds. In the 273 matches that he has played for the country, he has scored 11168 runs with an average of 48.76 and a strike rate of 92.80.
