If India are to win big tournaments, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli should score big: Wasim Jaffer

Former Test opener Wasim Jaffer opened up about Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli’s form and noted how important it is for India for them to score big to win big tournaments. Rohit played very cautiously during India’s regulation chase of 148 and was almost dismissed by pacer Naseem Shah in the very first over, but the review came to his rescue.

The Indian skipper was eventually sent back to the dugout in the 8th over with 12 runs off 18 deliveries to his name when he miscued one from spinner Mohammad Nawaz with the aim of clearing the long-off fence. But Iftikhar Ahmed made no mistake in completing the catch. After Rohit’s wicket, a well-set Virat Kohli was also dismissed in no time as India reeled at 53/3.

Coming back to Wasim Jaffer, he felt that the Indian captain didn’t get much of a strike and hence, he couldn’t get the team off to a flyer. It was Virat Kohli who took charge for the most part of the first six overs after KL Rahul’s early dismissal. However, both couldn’t score big with the former scoring only 12 while Kohli managed to muster 35 runs.

Rohit Sharma has resorted to that same aggressive approach: Wasim Jaffer

“The recent knocks that Rohit Sharma has played after the IPL he has been batting with the same team in the Indian team. He has resorted to that same aggressive approach. So if you bat like that there are very few chances of the batter scoring 70-80 runs. He has given a brisk start but has not scored big runs. Yes, he has scored 30-40 runs and it is not like he has not scored at all”, said Wasim Jaffer while speaking on BatBricks 7 Presents Run Ki Runneeti show on CricTracker.

“Today it was unlikely since he did not get much strike in the Powerplay as Virat Kohli played the maximum number of balls. He was batting on five runs in the Powerplay without hitting any boundary and it is very unlikely. So, it is not that people are not focussing on Rohit Sharma because even he is a big player and is kept in the same league as Virat Kohli and if India are to win big tournaments then these two players need to score big runs”, he added.

“Like I said even Virat Kohli has come back after a break, even KL Rahul is coming back from a long break. Unfortunately, he was dismissed off the very first (second) ball. So if you look at India’s top three then you have two players in them who have not played much cricket. But, it is a good thing that India won their first match”, Jaffer further added.

This was Rohit Sharma’s fourth consecutive failure against Pakistan in T20Is which also include two ducks (Asia Cup 2016 and T20 World Cup 2021. He is yet to register a half-century against the Men in Green in the shortest format.