‘I'm pretty sure he's not far from his best’ - Rohit Sharma on Harshal Patel’s recent struggles in death overs

Indian skipper Rohit Sharma backed Harshal Patel to come good after the latter’s recent struggles in the T20I series against Australia. The all-rounder was under the scanner for conceding 49 in his four overs in the first T20I defeat and it got worse in the second game when he went for 32 runs in his two overs in the shortened eight overs game.  

Harshal did show signs of getting into his groove in the final game, as he conceded 18 in the two overs he bowled and picked up a wicket. Overall, it wasn’t the best of returns for Harshal especially considering that the T20 World Cup is just few weeks away and skipper Rohit had his say on the Gujarat-born pacer.  

We've not really judged him on how he has performed in these three games: Rohit Sharma 

Rohit mentioned the difficulties of returning from an injury and was reluctant to judge the performances of Harshal in the three games. He noted about the quality that Harshal brings and recalled the brilliant run he has had in IPL and international cricket over the last one year. The 35-year-old further added that Harshal Patel has been working on his mistakes and strongly believed in the pacer’s abilities.  

"Coming back from an injury is never easy. He missed cricket for close to two months. Whenever bowlers go through an injury phase and come back, it's never easy, so we've not really judged him on how he has performed in these three games because we know his quality,” Rohit said after the match as quoted by Cricbuzz.

"He has bowled some tough overs for us in the past, and also for his franchise. We believe in his quality, whatever he has as a bowler. It's important to keep showing that faith and I'm pretty sure he's also trying to rectify those mistakes. He's working hard on his bowling." 

"As I see, in the nets, whenever we do have our training sessions, he's always working on his skills which is what you want. You want players to go out and keep improving. We talk about it all the time; we can see that happening. So, I'm pretty sure he's not far from his best," he added.  

Another seamer who was under the pump in the death overs for India, was Bhuvneshwar Kumar. The experienced lad leaked a lot in the final overs in recent times, which had created a bit of panic now among the fans and experts.  

"It's important we give him that space. Because when you have a guy like him in the team and the quality that he brings, we know that he's had more good days than bad days honestly speaking, in the last so many years we've seen. Yes, of late it's been not the kind of performance that he would want, but that can happen to any of the bowlers,” Rohit opined on Bhuvneshwar.