I was never a batsman until I turned 13-14: Rohit Sharma

Indian opening batsman Rohit Sharma known for being the only batsman in the history of ODI cricket to have scored two double centuries shared his experience and talked about the hard work he puts in, his ODI world record score of 264, and much more.

Rohit is known for his elegance with the bat and a lot of people like to term it as lazy elegance. When asked about his batting and how it looks easy, he said, “People make it sound really easy when they say the shots I play look elegant and easy on the eye. I started my career at 11 as an off-spinner. I was never a batsman until I turned 13-14. A lot of hard work went in to make me a batsman.”

“My coach Dinesh Lad helped me a lot in my school days when I was a bowler. He promoted me to open the innings and that was the game in which I scored a hundred. From there on, I started concentrating a lot on my batting. It’s been a long journey and a lot of hard work. There are new challenges that keep arising.”

He said having seniors around helped him understand how to deal with criticism as his focus is only on the job in hand. When asked about his friends in the Indian team he said that he cannot point out one person.

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“It was an awkward moment entering a dressing room which has all the stalwarts you’ve seen play and heard so much about. It wasn’t a friendly atmosphere. I am not saying that they didn’t make me feel at home. It was just the moment and the feeling that you could sense.”

Talking about the pink ball Test cricket, he said that it is still early days to comment on this but believes that the idea of the pink ball will be a massive success. “It was very entertaining for people who were watching. But what I saw as a player was that the pink ball was challenging for both the batsman and the bowler. I think those guys handled it really well. I don’t know how it’s going to be in India. I hope there will be a lot of people there to watch as well.”

“We want Test cricket to be as interesting as it was 20-25 years ago and I just hope this idea of the pink ball will be a massive success. We are there as players to do whatever is required,” he added.

When asked about his record-breaking 264 against Sri Lanka, he said that he played with some finger injury and was coming off the back of some bad form. “If you don’t have 100 percent strength in your fingers, you feel uncomfortable. I was nervous. There were lots of questions popping up in 2014. Then I thought I will just approach it as another game and not worry about the injury. I was very slow in the first half of my innings. I was trying to get into the groove, trying to feel the ball.”

“I still remember, after getting in post my 264, Duncan Fletcher (then Indian coach) came to me and said, “You could’ve easily scored a 300. You didn’t because in the first half of your innings you were too slow.” I said, “Okay, if you want 300, I will try and get it in the next game,” the Indian opener added.

He said that being the skipper is a hard job as it’s hard to go and tell someone that he’s not playing this game. “It’s a tough job, believe me, to go and tell someone that he’s not playing this game. I don’t know how these captains do these things. MS Dhoni has been doing it for such a long period of time.”

He had a cheeky reply when he was asked about the ‘talented underachiever’ tag, he said, “Many people have sustained their jobs by criticizing me. But I’m happy that I could help someone out in some way. I’ve given them a lot to talk about.”

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Speaking about IPL’s contribution in building Indian cricket, he said that it has helped massively. “For the younger players, it’s about rubbing shoulders with international stars. It makes them fearless. I still remember in 2008, Yusuf Pathan had a brilliant IPL season and he got an opportunity to play for India. Having these big names joking around and sharing the dressing room with you makes you feel like you’re one of them.”

He said that he follows Sachin Tendulkar’s instructions which has helped him pick himself up from failure. “When you play a sport, you have to accept that there will be failures. I understood that a long time back. I’ve spoken to Sachin Tendulkar about it. I still remember, when I was in Sri Lanka, I was having a horrid time. He called me and asked me to do certain things. I still try to follow that now. I relax, go and watch a few movies, try and sing although I’m not good at it, or get my friends over and chill with them,” he concluded.