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The Times of India

Sport

Partha Bhaduri | TNN

World Cup, India vs New Zealand: Decoding the Rohit Sharma-Virat Kohli contrast

Rohit Sharma Virat Kohli India World Cup

The red-hot captain-opener has given himself license to go for the jugular in the initial overs, allowing Kohli & the rest of the middle-order to play to their strengths & coolly consolidate the early advantage. Or, when the plan works perfectly, maybe even chase a few milestones!

DHARAMSHALA: There seems to be a lot of hand-wringing among cricket watchers over Virat Kohli making a spectacle of getting to his 48th ODI ton against Bangladesh. The perception is that India were unwilling to crush the opposition and instead allowed a personal milestone to take shape. It is an over-reaction.

Among other things, the match had long been reduced to a banal no contest until Kohli's ton and India's victory were both equidistant and imminent. The desperate conquest of three figures merely injected a spark of excitement at the finish. India still won with 51 balls and seven wickets to spare, in a reflection that Bangladesh had an ordinary day.

That Kohli had the luxury of refusing at least five singles was testimony to India's changed approach to their Powerplay batting, courtesy their red-hot captain Rohit Sharma's form, approach and willingness to take some calculated risks in the quest for quick runs at the top.

Rohit's opening bravado has, in effect, allowed the middle-order batters to put a greater price on their wicket and deliver consistently.

It's an approach which suits both these veteran batters. No wonder Rohit and Kohli are the top two run getters in this World Cup. Rohit has now scored 28.59% of the team's runs in India's first four World Cup matches as opposed to Virat Kohli's 27.94%. But as compared to 193 balls faced by Rohit, Kohli has faced 287 balls, the most by any batter so far this time.

Both have taken contrasting routes in their past 20 ODIs: Kohli has scored 871 runs at a strike rate of 105.06, with 19 sixes. Rohit has scored 923 runs at a strike rate of 116.68 with 49 sixes.

Over the last two years, Virat averages 63 in winning causes at a strike rate of 109.83 (19 sixes). Rohit averages 59.93 at a strike rate of 116.15, with 47 sixes in winning causes. Both qualities are essential cogs in this team's wheels. Also, Rohit's new-found aggression seems to have freed 'chase master' Kohli and transformed India into an even more lethal chasing outfit.

This dual approach isn't a sudden move - it cuts across formats and has been shaped to accommodate both Virat's old-fashioned consistency and Rohit's remarkable technical ability to re-mould his game to suit the team's needs.

Perhaps the seeds were sown in the Asia Cup (T20) game against Afghanistan a year ago, when Kohli broke a three-year drought of centuries that cut across formats and declared in a chat with Rohit that he had been "desperate to do something that wasn't in my game".

"I've got a lot of clarity (from the management) to just allow me to bat. Six-hitting is not a strength of mine. I'm better at finding the gaps and hitting boundaries... it will still serve the purpose of the team. We can play in many ways."

Subsequently, before the start of the T20 World Cup last year, Rohit said, "There needs to be a change in our attitude, in our approach and how we play the game. At the same time, we need to remember that when we are trying to do new things, there will be some failures. It doesn't mean that you take a step back."

Consequently Rohit, once a flag-waving acolyte of the Kohli school of ODI thought - start warily, size up the conditions and opposition, milk some runs and explode at the end when set - has now transformed into a modern, but not less successful, power-hitter who is not averse to playing unorthodox strokes early. Sometimes it doesn't come off, but when it does, it's half the job done and the rest merely need to consolidate.

KL Rahul, who took the heat off Kohli by saying it was he who suggested a century was there for the taking, offered an astute observation to the host broadcasters on Rohit's new approach. "I don't think Rohit walks in with the mindset that he needs to take the bowler down (at any cost). He knows how to pace his innings. You don't see him slogging. Once he gets a few boundaries he gets really into it. He makes our job a bit easier in the middle order."

1/10:World Cup: Virat Kohli leads India stat attack against Bangladesh
AFP

So it is worth noting how one veteran batter's landmark may have been facilitated by another stalwart's calculated adventurism. Rohit is playing fire to Virat's ice, and the results are showing. The vibes are good.