AHMEDABAD: India’s middle-order issues in ODIs have been spoken about extensively for a long time but new captain Rohit Sharma was happy with the kind of effort put in by the likes of Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav in their 3-0 series win against the West Indies.
Surya was in fine nick in the first two games while Shreyas and Rishabh Pant came good in the final encounter in a relatively low scoring series on a difficult track where bowlers ruled the roost.
“What we were worried about was how we were challenged in the middle overs, but our middle order batting in this series was very good,” Rohit said after the end of the series.
“We batted according to the conditions and we had spoken about it for a long time that middle order does not get too many opportunities because the top three bat, but in this series, middle order batted well and as per the situation, which was a positive,” said Rohit.
While Rohit along with other two seniors Shikhar Dhawan and former skipper Virat Kohli have scored bulk of the runs during last 10 years, the middle-order has often caved in under pressure when it mattered.
“See I think, in ODI cricket, the four, five and six are very important numbers, some of the greats of India cricket have batted at that number, so it is a very crucial number.
“For us, it is important, whoever that four, five and six are, they get enough game-time and if we have a bowling option in those guys, nothing like it.” For Rohit, it was paramount that every one got game time.
“But honestly for me, it is important for them to have as much game time as possible. We have got a lot of candidates for that number, but it is a good headache to have and good competition within themselves to come out and play and perform,” the Mumbaikar added.
“It was important for them [middle order] to put up a performance like that, everyone in the middle-order whenever they got an opportunity to bat, they performed and got the runs and they batted in difficult situations as well, like the last two games, we were 40/3 odd and from there we had to build the innings, so both games, we managed to do that, so it is a good sign moving forward,” he explained.
