"Cannot tell Rohit Sharma to change his game because of the angle of the bowler"- Sunil Gavaskar defends star batter over left-arm pace struggles

Former Indian opener Sunil Gavaskar defended skipper Rohit Sharma over his continued struggles against left-arm pacers after the 2024 T20 World Cup Super Eight clash against Afghanistan on June 20. The 37-year-old fell to a left-arm pacer for a third consecutive time in the tournament when the in-form Fazalhaq Farooqi dismissed him for 8 during India's batting innings.

Rohit fell to left-arm pacers Saurabh Netravalkar and Shaheen Afridi for low scores of 3 and 13 in India's previous two outings against the USA and Pakistan. Despite boasting an impressive overall record, the champion batter has endured a torrid time against left-arm pacers throughout his illustrious career.

Talking about Rohit's ongoing struggles against the left-arm pacers post-game on Star Sports, Gavaskar said:

"He is an experinced batter. He knows what he has got to do. You cannot really tell Rohit Sharma to change his game because of the angle of the bowler. Yes, sometimes you might say, because of the angle, don't hit towards the on-side, maybe look to play the inside out shot over extra cover. Either things you try and maybe understand that is what he should have done."

The dismissal against Afghanistan was the 24th time Rohit had fallen to a left-arm pacer in 147 T20I innings.

Nevertheless, he boasts an excellent T20I record with over 4,000 runs at an average of 31.64 and a strike rate of 139.31 in 155 games.

"If you have scored 10,000 to 15,000 runs and get out maybe 40 times outside off-stump that doesn't feel there is a weakness" - Sunil Gavaskar

Sunil Gavaskar further defended Rohit Sharma by highlighting how being dismissed in a particular way while scoring a mountain of runs shouldn't be deemed a weakness.

After a valuable half-century in India's tournament opener against Ireland, the skipper has struggled with form in the next three games. Rohit has tallied only 76 runs at an average of 25.33 and a strike rate of under 112 thus far in the ongoing T20 World Cup.

"A man who has got so much of tons and tons of experience of playing limited-overs cricket doesn't need to change. He has got out. At the end of the day, batters have some way to get out. If you get out caught behind you can't say you have got a weakness against the off-stump. If you have scored 10,000 to 15,000 runs and get out maybe 40 times outside off-stump that doesn't feel there is a weakness," said Gavaskar.

Rohit is likely to be thrown more left-arm pacers through Mustafizur Rahman and Mitchell Starc in India's next two Super Eight encounters against Bangladesh and Australia.