Former West Indies pacer Ian Bishop said that he liked Rohit Sharma’s approach in the powerplay as he is setting the tone earlier than ever. In the first T20I against West Indies at Eden Gardens, India raced to 58/0 in the first 6 overs despite Ishan Kishan’s struggle at the other end.
Rohit Sharma played a free-flowing knock of 19-ball 40 runs which included 4 fours and 3 sixes while on the other side Ishan Kishan struggled on his way with a knock of 42-ball 35. With a heavy powerplay, India recovered well despite losing heaps of wickets in the middle as Suryakumar Yadav and Venkatesh Iyer took the team home with 7 balls to spare.
Rohit Sharma scored 40 runs in 19 balls in the first T20I
Ian Bishop lauded this approach as India decided to go with this template after those two losses against Pakistan and New Zealand which eventually became the reason for their group-stage exit from the tournament.
“That’s the way India have to play going forward. Rohit Sharma has decided post, I suppose, after the World Cup. They did well against a couple of the lower-ranked teams at the back end of the World Cup but this is how the powerplay needs to be for India, particularly when they come up against some of the higher-ranked teams,” Ian Bishop spoke to Star Sports
“Ishan didn’t fire, at some point, he will as he gets more used to that position. But the template is there, the captain leading from the front in terms of aggression. That’s the way forward,” he added.
After the T20 World Cup, India approached with the same in 3-match T20I series against New Zealand when Rohit and Rahul set the template in the powerplay itself. In the third match when Ishan Kishan was given an opportunity in place of KL Rahul, he followed the same template.
The visitors were whitewashed by a 3-0 margin. India also whitewashed West Indies in the 3-match ODI series earlier. The second T20I will be played on February 18.