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Former Indian batsman VVS Laxman has opined that Rohit Sharma has not been as expressive in Tests as he has in white-ball cricket. Speaking at the end of Day 1 of the first Test against England on a chat with ESPNcricinfo, Laxman dissected Rohit Sharma's approach while opening the innings in foreign conditions.
VVS Laxman said:
"This has been the game plan of Rohit Sharma, especially in the overseas conditions. He has not been as expressive as he is in white-ball cricket. He takes his time, respects the good deliveries, and whenever the ball is short, he looks to play the back-foot punch or a cut short, and for anything on the stumps, he uses his wrist or plays with the straight bat towards mid-on. He has got his game-plan set. It will be interesting to see how KL Rahul approaches his innings tomorrow."
Rohit Sharma has recorded scores of 26, 52, 44, 7, 34 and 30 as an opener while playing in Sydney, Brisbane and Southampton over the last year. He has gotten off to starts on almost all occasions by countering good bowling attacks wielded by Australia and New Zealand in testing conditions.
But he could not convert these knocks into big scores like he effortlessly does in white-ball cricket. Indian fans will be hoping that the flamboyant opener will overcome this hurdle and score big in the current match at Trent Bridge.
Both the openers would want to prove themselves that they can perform in English conditions: VVS Laxman
VVS Laxman also stated that both openers would be trying to prove a point in this Test by notching up a big score. KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma have always been rated highly due to their elegance and class batsmanship. But consistency has evaded them in Test cricket, especially in matches away from home.
On the matter, Laxman said:
"Both the openers would want to prove themselves that they can perform in English conditions. Rohit Sharma is playing his second match in these conditions. I thought he batted well in the World Test Championship (WTC) final, even though he did not convert his good start into a big score. His partner KL Rahul has a good basic technique, and at the same time, he has got a lot of shots at his disposal."
"But they also realized that seeing off the new ball or the tricky period of play that the openers and number 3 batsmen have to encounter at the end of the day's play, especially when the opposition team is bowled out cheaply. I think they knew that they had to see through the day and then come back fresh tomorrow and start afresh," Laxman concluded.
