Rohit Sharma has set extremely high standards for himself as an opener in the last couple of years. The elegant right-hander has found tremendous success as an opener and he began 2016 on a high as he was the Man of the Series against Australia in the ODI series. However, things went southwards for the Mumbai batsman as he had a below par outing in the ICC World T20 recently.
As he braces up to lead the Mumbai Indians against the Kolkata Knight Riders, Sharma spoke on the sidelines about his desired batting position and the way in which his side was shaping up. The Mumbai Indians would be eager to open their account on the points table after suffering a loss against the Rising Pune Supergiants in the tournament opener.
Sharma, in his interaction with the press, stated that he would like to continue opening for the Mumbai Indians. “For me, I’ve been opening for a while – three years now – so I’d like to continue that for the remainder of the series. But everything depends on the balance, if I feel me batting top of the order is not right for the team, I’ll come down as a middle-order batsman. If it helps the team, I’m ready to do whatever it takes to help the team win,” said Rohit.
Sharma further added that for a team to win any major tournament, it was essential for all the batsmen to step up and shoulder the responsibility. “We have to share the responsibility. I cannot be just one person winning the tournament,” Rohit said. “Last year, we hardly had anyone in the top five in the batting list which shows that everybody contributed and shared the responsibility. You will have individual performances and brilliance at times, but if you want to win the tournament, it has to come from everyone, not just one person. In the last three years, we have had so much success because the responsibility was shared. I would expect the same, but as a leader, I would like to step up and perform every game,” said Sharma.