Wiser from Australia, Rohit Sharma determined to tighten up

Strikes and rallies are a daily affair in Bangladesh. On Monday, the Bangladesh Nationalist party (BNP) is all set to launch Dhaka Cholo (let’s go to Dhaka) at the call of their leader Khaleda Zia. The streets will be flooded with people.

The point is that the journey from Pan Pacific Hotel, which is in the heart of Dhaka, to the Mirpur Stadium won’t be all that smooth on Monday. How does that matter to Rohit Sharma?

“I don’t care. We are training tomorrow. At least I am,” Sharma declared with rare intent. This, after he had batted and bowled his off-spinners for the better part of three hours at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium on Sunday.

One could gauge from Sharma’s session that some thought was ticking in him. He rushed to the pitch on the extreme right. Praveen Kumar, R Vinay Kumar and Irfan Pathan were ready for a bowl. PK bowled a loosener, the line was perfect. Sharma let it go. Pathan steamed in next. He strayed down the leg stump and you know what happened. Then Kumar got one to angle away and Sharma, surprisingly, allowed the ball to sail by harmlessly.

This routine continued for the next 20 minutes or so. The bad balls were punished, the good ones left alone. R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Rahul Sharma were bowling at the adjacent nets.

Sharma went there next. What ensued was another round of pulling, cutting, driving and, of course, ‘leaving’. Fielding coach Trevor Penny, armed with that throwdown tool, and a bunch of net bowlers occupied the third net. It was a different pitch, a different set of bowlers, but Sharma stuck to his ‘new’ routine.

Sharma’s change of heart was heartening if one remembers the CB series in Australia. When your last five outings in ODI cricket have yielded scores of 21, 10, 33, 15 and 0, you are bound to have a change of heart. The 10 and 15 came against Sri Lanka, the remaining against Australia. “Yes, he had a few problems in Australia,” Sharma’s childhood coach, Dinesh Lad, admitted. “But if you remember, he got a start in every match barring the last one.”

Isn’t that criminal? Lad didn’t have much to say. Sharma, though, has confided to his close friends that he rues the missed opportunities. His biggest regret was the failure to convert that 33 against Australia in Adelaide. India won that game, though, thanks to MS Dhoni’s last-over heroics.

Sharma, however, has made it clear that he will continue to play his shots. But yes, he knows he’ll have to see off the first few overs. Like Lad says, “Once he settles in, he’s impossible to dismiss.”

Such days, we know, are few and far between.

Back to the CB Series. Sharma was run out for 15 in the next game against Sri Lanka before a duck in India’s 110-run loss against Australia at the Gabba prompted Dhoni to dump his rotation policy. Five innings and 79 runs later, Sharma was dropped.

India take on Sri Lanka in their Asia Cup opener on Wednesday. And Sharma will bat at the crucial No 4 position. This time, the monkey (rotation policy) won’t be in operation to bog him down.
We’ll know then if he’s learnt his lessons or not. If he hasn’t, the clamour for Manoj Tiwary’s inclusion in the XI will only grow louder. And that Test debut may have to wait longer.