Players make mistakes: Sanjay Bangar on Rohit Sharma

Rohit Sharma. Inset: Sanjay Bangar

New Delhi: Rohit Sharma can dazzle and disappoint! When on song, he is a delight to watch - leaving the fans awestruck with some phenomenal strokeplay. Then there are those unwanted occasions when he loses his wicket to needless indiscretion. On Day One of the fourth Test against South Africa at Delhi, he had the chance to make an impression in a tricky situation, but threw it away in an unnecessary show of aggression.


Rohit Sharma. Pic/AFP

The dismissal
Coming in at 136 for four, Rohit had a reprieve a few balls before his dismissal. Facing pacer Kyle Abbott, he edged one to first slip, where Hashim Amla spilled the chance. That should have pushed Rohit to exercise a little more caution and get his eye in. But that wasn't to be. Off-spinner Dane Piedt had placed the long-on near the boundary and Rohit found the man with an extravagant stroke.

India's batting coach, Sanjay Bangar though defended Rohit by speaking about the entire team's commitment. "I want to say that the current lot that plays for India and turns out for the country are immensely talented, and committed cricketers. They (have) work(ed) very hard to reach where they are. Surely days like these - when players make mistakes - they must be equally hurting. Most committed players do," Bangar said.

Bangar spoke about Rohit's recent one-day form and said that the batsman hasn't had many Test matches in a row. "I think as I have been saying earlier that you show faith in him (Rohit), give him successive opportunities and then assess him,"

Bangar said.
Such opportunities are worth their weight in gold for Rohit. He was the second highest run-scorer for India during the Test series in Sri Lanka, yet found himself on the bench for the first two games in this series. The Mumbai batsman needs to capitalise on these lifelines if he wants to convince the team management that he should be a regular fixture in the Test line-up.

234
Number of runs scored by Rohit Sharma in last six Tests at an average of 23.40