Rohit Denies Top-Order’s Struggle Against Left-arm Pacers

Team India’s top-order comprises some of the finest batters in the country with Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli being the face of it. But when it comes to facing left-arm pacers, the struggle has always been evident. Be it the past multi-nation tournaments or the ongoing 3-match ODI series, the southpaws have always troubled India’s top batters.

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Currently, Australia’s Mitchell Starc has enjoyed massive success against the Indian batting order, scalping 8 wickets in two encounters. In Mumbai, Starc returned figures of 3 for 49 in 9.5 overs but his efforts went in vain as the hosts pulled off a 5-wicket win. On Sunday, he went out all guns blazing and picked up a five-wicket haul which set up Australia’s 10-wicket thrashing of the home side here on Sunday.

The Australian pacer’s performances in the two ODIs yet again underlined the woes of India’s top-order, which stacks right-handers in plenty, against left-arm quicks, with the likes of Pakistan’s Mohammad Amir, Shaheen Shah Afridi and New Zealand’s Trent Boult hurting them dearly in crucial games in the past.

But, Rohit refused to read Indian top-order batters’ struggle against the left-arm pacers.

“When you have a quality bowler in the opposition, he is bound to take wickets. He is trying his best to get your best players out. Whether it’s a left-armer or a right-armer, they will get wickets. The right-armers have troubled us well, nobody talks about it,” Rohit told the media after the second ODI here.

“We don’t look too much into the left-arm or the right-arm — wickets are wickets. If you lose wickets, it is a concern. We will look into all sorts of things: how we are getting out, what we need to do, how we can come up with better plans, better methods against the seamers.”

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Rohit further said that the top order has struggled ‘a little bit’ in just two games.

“You know, the last six ODIs, if I remember a lot of the top order (batsmen) got big runs. When we really need to look into it, we will definitely look into it.”

With the series now levelled at 1-1 with one game left to play, the two teams will head to Chennai for the series decider to be played at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Tuesday.

(With PTI Inputs)

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