Two awkwardly tall fast bowlers, a hard-length merchant, a left-arm spinning master of drop and his utilitarian cronies present a compellingly stiff examination for Rohit Sharma, battling an uncharacteristic slump in an ICC tournament. It is not so much the lack of runs and hundreds that would annoy him, as his diminished capacity to set the tone with heavy riffs. The four outings have earned him only 104 runs at a strike rate of 107. The hitting rate is healthy, but his premature departure, floundering in the 20s (and a 40), has inflated the burden on Shubman Gill and Virat Kohli.
In the 50-over World Cup in 2023, he played the dual roles of both attacking and safeguarding his wicket with imperceptible comfort. He faced an average of 43 balls per game (and hit at 126), whereas in Dubai, the corresponding numbers are 24 and 107.
He had to counter diverse challenges in this tournament.
A) The surfaces have been a trifle sluggish for his attacking tastes. Even the new ball gets stuck on the deck, driving on the rise as well as unboxing the pick-up pull risky business. The inherent sluggishness girdles his turbocharged impulses.
B) Bowlers, gleaning lessons from the ODI World Cup, have devised methods to contain. In this tournament, they have probed him with back-of-length balls at stumps.
India’s captain Rohit Sharma plays a shot during the ICC Champions Trophy semifinal cricket match between India and Australia at Dubai International Cricket Stadium in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Tuesday, March 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
Plans to induce a nick behind had been long shelved, and unless one could bend late and big, fuller lengths were eschewed. Shaheen Shah Afridi did and cracked his stumps. Then it is Shaheen Shah Afridi. C) The battle with the self. He is so much intoxicated by the hyper-aggressive avatar that he has estranged himself from a steadier approach that marked his mid-career highs.
His approach in the final, thus, would produce a layered and fascinating watch.
Rohit vs height
Kyle Jamieson is six feet eight inches; his Canterbury colleague Will O’ Rourke six feet, six inches. The release points are unnervingly high, the ball descends from a height of roughly 2.5 metres. Extra bounce is a natural virtue. But extra bounce from hard and good lengths make them tougher to nullify. It’s the reason Rohit tried to work Jamieson through the square regions on the off-side, playing from the back-foot. He deserted his favourite method of sashaying down the track and cuffing through covers (or smearing through midwicket), because the ploy is counterproductive, for their height makes it onerously difficult to get on top of the bounce.
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Maneuvering their pace and gliding them behind — as Rohit is splendidly capable of — could be a more practical route to the fence. The asset works on a practical and psychological level. Batsmen are wary of pulling and hooking them, because of the extra bounce they coax off the surface. They are careful of driving them because even when the ball is there to be driven they often fail to get fully forward, bringing the edge into play.
The pull, if employed smartly, could be an effective ploy. In the group fixture, Jamieson lured him into mistiming a pull. The slowness of the ball defeated him as much as the extra bounce. He staggered the ball to mid-wicket. Both elements threw his balance off-kilter, resulting in an uncontrolled pull. The favourite stroke of his has been undoing him frequently in recent times. A reason could be that he is trying to hit them in front of square, on the front foot, rather than swivelling and using the pace to target the arc behind square leg and fine leg (as he did to Naseem Shah in the Pakistan game). Against slower, shorter bowlers it could work, but not against a pair pelting leather from the skies.
Australia’s Josh Inglis appeals successfully for the wicket of India’s captain Rohit Sharma, right, during the ICC Champions Trophy semifinal cricket match between India and Australia at Dubai International Cricket Stadium in Dubai. (AP)
To the gift of height add healthy pace, ability to seam both ways and accuracy, Jamieson and O’Rourke present a magnificently unique test.
Rohit vs hard-length merchant
The improbability of Matt Henry featuring in the final would relieve Rohit, but Jacob Duffy is more than a standard workhorse. The strapping seamer from Southland could plug away in mid-130kph, pounding the hard-length with a high degree of precision. Don’t be fooled by the speedometer. The ball comes faster at the batsmen than they think. He is not a one-length pony either. Sucking the batsmen to the back-foot, he hurls in a full and fiery out-swinger.
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Against him, you could visualise Rohit bounding out of the crease and flaying through cover or flapping via mid-wicket. But beware of his heavy ball that thuds into the splice.
India’s captain Rohit Sharma walks off the field after losing his wicket during the ICC Champions Trophy cricket match between India and New Zealand at Dubai International Cricket Stadium in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Sunday, March 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
Rohit vs Santner & Co.
The Indian captain has faced just four balls of spin bowling this tournament. All came against Australia greenhorn Connor Connolly. He eked out just a run and got out sweeping the left-arm orthodox spinner. The Kiwis pack would pose tougher questions. Mitchell Santner is a wizard of drift and drop, creating the illusion that the ball is there but not there. He deceives with change of pace, angle of release and overs-spin. Glenn Phillips is irritatingly flat, difficult to cut and Michael Bracewell infuriatingly disciplined. Rohit, if he survives the height onslaught, would look to sweep them off the length or step out to loft down the ground. Whether his eyes and reflexes rebel against the brain’s wishes has to be seen. Either way, his score in the final has the capacity to both sustain and destroy his career.