India white-ball captain Rohit Sharma doesn’t think that Virat Kohli’s form is a concern as of now. Kohli scored 26 runs in 3 innings in the ODI series against the West Indies. It’s the second-lowest score for him in any ODI series.
In the 3-match series against Pakistan in 2012-13. Also, it’s the first time in more than 6 years that he failed to score a 50+ score in any ODI series. The last time it happened, was against Bangladesh in 2015.
However, despite his lack of runs, India wrapped up the series with a 3-0 margin. On Friday the hosts beat West Indies by 96 runs to complete the whitewash.
Speaking in the post-match press conference, Rohit Sharma laughed it off when he was asked if Virat Kohli is lacking in confidence.
“Does Virat Kohli need confidence? What are you talking about? (chuckles) I think not scoring 100 is a different thing [but] he played a series in South Africa and scored two fifties in three matches. I don’t see anything wrong.
“And the team management is not at all worried. What we were worried about was, you know, how we will be challenged in the middle overs and I thought our middle overs batting in this series was really good,“ Rohit Sharma said.
Sharma believes that it’s a blessing in disguise that top-3 didn’t score much in the series as it gave the middle order much-needed time to test themselves out. He lauded the likes of Iyer, Pant and Suryakumar who scored crucial runs for the team in the series.
“The middle-order batted well and according to the conditions”- Rohit Sharma
“We batted well and according to the conditions. We’ve been talking about it for a long time that our middle-order doesn’t get too many chances to bat because the top-3 bats a lot.
“In this series, you saw how our middle-order batted and how well they read the situations. As a team, it was a big positive for us and we would like to carry that forward,” he added.
Rohit Sharma also stated that they would like to give middle-order batters as many games as possible.
“See, in One-Day cricket the No. 4, 5 and 6 are very, very important. Some of the greats of Indian cricket have batted at those numbers… but see, for us, it’s important whoever those 4, 5 and 6 are they get enough game time.
“And of course, if we have a bowling option in those guys, nothing like it. But honestly, for me, it’s important for them to have as much game time as possible,” he concluded.
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