Did Rohit Sharma got nurtured in the team? Do India learned from their mistake? Because I see Rohit headed down the path that ate Irfan Pathan.

Did someone like Sachin or Dravid put their hands on his shoulders and talked about the game?

Rohit Sharma, the name that no Indian cricket fan likes to see in the team sheet nowadays. From being touted as future of Indian cricket team, his own future as cricketer hangs in balance. He is at cross roads. He can either perish or see it as an opportunity to go back to basics and work harder to fight his way back through performances.

Amidst all these talk of “Rohit is a great talent and gifted cricketer”, he got some technique problems apart from temperament issue. Aakash Chopra, Indian opening batsmen had tweeted more than once during the recent Srilanka series that “Rohit head is falling towards off-stump.” What is it means? In simple term, he is taking side view rather than a good straight look at bowler’s hand when releasing the ball. This may result in misjudging the line of the ball and also make you unbalanced when playing the ball, especially to those coming in. If you look at the dismissals of Rohit Sharma (bowled, bowled, LBW, LBW and bowled) in recently concluded five match ODI series against Srilanka, then you can clearly see this pitfalls are what lead to his downfall.

It is also a case whether Rohit missed an elderly advice? An advice like the one which transpired Rahul Dravid in ODI. I remember hearing (through commentator’s say) or reading (through interviews or articles) that when Rahul struggled with bad strike rate in ODI’s, Sachin helped him out in both mindset and technique during nets session through some tips and tweaks.

The tag of “great potential and future” earned Irfan Pathan place in the team match after match despite poor performances. Technique fault (bad wrist position) of Irfan was not take care and nurtured back at first choice. By the time India dropped (sent back to sort out the problem) him, talent is long rotten.

I see Irfan Pathan in Rohit Sharma case again. I see Indian management failing to do their task again. I see no one learning from the previous big mistake. Whenever the question of poor performance and earning place in the XI comes, it is been shut out by the words talent, potential and future. They did it to Irfan Pathan and doing same again for Rohit.

I often wonder what will be the mindset of Rohit Sharma when walking out to bat. Contrasting to most people view, i think Rohit goes out thinking he must perform with bat today. Rohit may be in a state of what i call positive insecurity. I say positive because Rohit knows he still has x number of matches before being dropped. But then insecurity comes in must perform and meeting the expectation with that longer run of opportunities given.

The picture is telling story on what Rohit going through, which obviously India management failed to see.

Once Dhoni said seniors will be rotated to give chances for Rohit Sharma in the playing XI, each failure is automatically made to look bigger. And by keeping the centurion Manoj Tiwary out, India ensured Rohit Sharma scores to match the expectation increased in every match. In almost all the matches (including IPL) after CB series, Rohit is not enjoying his batting and taking pleasure in spending time. He batted like to prove everyone that he belongs here and with each failure, his confidence got dented as much as his frustration increased in not being able to score runs. He started to chase wide ones, manufactures shots and did everything unnecessarily to score runs. Rohit is desperate in his attempt. Desperate enough to feel his mind freezing after each unsuccessful attempt of scoring runs in a ball during the match. He is under as much scrutiny as Sachin Tendulkar was during the 100th century saga. Wherever you turn, whether it is social media sites or commentators or news articles or neighboring cricket discussion, Rohit is talked about.

I don’t know why no one took notice of this. Even those experts while writing columns blamed Rohit Sharma on temperament alone. What about Indian team management? aren’t they failed to check whether player is in right frame of mind to play,  in need of more match practice and going through negative emotions. After all, the job of manager is to decide whether someone fits for their need and find a way to get best out of them. Rohit fits the need but definitely making him to play despite continuous failures is not the way to get the best.

Where will Rohit head now? I lost in plotting out the path considering the way BCCI and team India works in strategy planning. Making Rohit to play a full season of Ranji or possible county stint without any T20 matches is the ideal way to go. If India does this, then we won’t stare at losing yet another world beating talent.

Tags: BCCI, Cricket, India team poor management, India tour of Srilanka, India vs Srilanka, Indian Cricket Team, Indian cricket team future, Indian Premier League, Indian team batting talents, Irfan Pathan, Irfan Pathan losing his talent, Manoj Tiwary, MS Dhoni, ODI Cricket, Rahul Dravid, Rohit Sharma, Rohit Sharma failure to perform big, Rohit Sharma talent is not put to best use, Sachin Tendulkar, T20 Cricket, Test Matches