Team India captain Rohit Sharma has endorsed Virat Kohli’s ultra-aggressive approach in the T20Is which saw him getting dismissed for 1 and 11 in the just-concluded series versus England and questioned the “experts” who have called for the former skipper’s omission from T20Is for lack of form.
Rohit didn’t mention names but the likes of Kapil Dev and Michael Vaughan, the former England captain and pundit, have called for Kohli to be dropped whereas Virender Sehwag has tweeted about the “need to find a way to play the best available players in current form in T20 cricket”.
The India captain said Kohli’s intent was both a personal decision as well as one based on the team’s needs. “It’s a bit of both, you know. We, as a team, want to play in a certain way and every player needs to buy into that thought process, otherwise, you know, it’s not gonna happen for you,” Rohit said at the post-match news conference at Trent Bridge on Sunday.
“And all the batters who are part of this squad are willing to take that extra risk and go and see what extra they can do with the bat. You know, it’s important to find out within yourself, to try and do different kinds of things and unless you try it you will never be able to find out. So I think it is something that we’ve been trying to do for a while now.
“And I have said it at the press conference at the start that on some days it might just come off, some days it might not. But we don’t want to be afraid of going and taking that extra risk. That’s how we’re going to learn as a team and that’s how we’re going to move forward as a team as well. So it’s everyone’s thought process and everyone is quite comfortable with that idea as well. So yeah, that’s the kind of direction the team is willing to move in.”
Rohit said people are free to voice their opinion watching from the outside.
“I don’t know who the experts are,” Rohit said, when asked if he found himself in an awkward position given Kohli’s lack of runs and the experts calling for him to be dropped. “I don’t even understand why they are called experts. They are watching it from outside, they don’t know what is going on the inside. We are building a team. A lot of deliberation goes behind it. There is a lot of thinking behind it. Boys are backed. Boys are given chances. People outside don’t know all these things. It is not important what is going on outside.
“If you talk of form, it goes up and down for everyone. The quality of a player never goes down. We should remember that. And we back that quality, and back them based on their quality. It has happened with me, it has happened with XYZ, it has happened with everyone, it is nothing new. When some player has done so well consistently for so long, they can’t be written off in one or two series or one or two years. It takes people time to understand it completely, but those who are running the team know the importance of that quality.”
Rohit said the process involves co-ordination among all parties involved. “The captain, the coach, selector, they all have a role,” Rohit said.
“Because if we do one thing, and the selectors do something else, then it will not work. It is important for those who are building the team to be on the same page. These boys need to be given the freedom. It is very important to consistently keep sending them the message to play with freedom. Because they are very talented, and that talent will be utilised only if we give them that freedom.
“We have seen some boys have been playing under pressure. We don’t want them to play under pressure. If they play with that freedom, they will do better than their own expectations from themselves. You saw an example today (Suryakumar), saw another one in Ireland (Deepak Hooda). I won’t take names. That’s how boys emerge. It is important to let them know what we want from them as a team management. That message has to be consistent. If you say something today, something else tomorrow, it won’t work.”
Rohit did not agree that the ODI series will be of lower priority for India in a T20 World Cup year. “It is important for us to understand white-ball cricket properly,” Rohit said. “I mean 50-over cricket is an extension of T20 cricket. You might take slightly fewer risks than you do in T20s, but we have to take risks. It is not as if we won’t take risks.
“We need to get used to playing freely. When you try to play freely, it comes with its failures both in individual performance and in team results.”
But you get to learn a lot from that. We are looking at the bigger picture, not the small picture. As it is, in India we are used to two-and-a-half-hour pictures. All these matches are crucial for us because somewhere we need to change something, and we can see things have started to change slightly.
“The biggest takeaway from this series has been the approach of each and every individual who has played in this series for us. How they have come and relished the moment in the middle, taking on the opportunity, taking on the opposition, taking that extra risk. The mindset is something that we are trying to change, and they are willing to do that. They’re willing to take that risk. And when I go and talk to certain individuals, I hear the same kind of response from them.”
