Modern-day greats figure out their own path: Rohit backs Kohli

PTI, Dec 24, 2024, 3:27 PM IST

rohith sharma and kohli

Melbourne: With a smile, India captain Rohit Sharma on Tuesday played down concerns around Virat Kohli’s struggles outside the off-stump in Australia and backed his longtime teammate to the hilt, saying “modern-day greats figure out their own path.” Kohli’s five innings in this series Down Under read 5, 100 not out, 7, 11 and 3 for a total of 126 runs at an average of 31.50, not something the team or the batting maestro himself had hoped for before embarking on the challenging tour.

But Rohit, who is also battling poor form, is not losing his sleep over the lack of runs and is confident of a turnaround. When a question about Kohli’s struggles was posed to him with some sugar-coating, the skipper added a dash of his own humour in his response.

Do you say something or leave a modern-day great alone, the scribe asked.

“You only said he is a modern-day great. Modern-day greats figure out their own path,” said a smiling Rohit as others broke into a peal of laughter.

Kohli was one of the earliest to enter the nets at MCG and Rohit was last among the recognised batters to get a knocking. The India skipper played just two shots in the last 20 minutes and left everything else, as he tried to curb his natural instinct to push forward.

The desperation to control his conditioned reflex of moving hands towards the fourth stump delivery was evident.

“Harshit, is jagah se jaa rahi hai (the ball is landing here)?” he pointed out at an imaginary fourth stump line while trying to know from the young pacer about the line which looked just around six inches outside off-stump. This line has been Kohli’s Achilles Heel in the ongoing tour.

When Prasidh Krishna came on, he was told to bowl on the “channel” as he wanted to leave balls. Prasidh dug one short and he just about defended. Then, the lanky Karnataka man hit the channel, and the batter withdrew his willow in the nick of time.

The 500-odd people present inside would let out a collective sigh. They made noise and once Kohli was also seen telling them to keep quiet and let him concentrate.

When Rohit batted, he was heard telling throwdown specialist Raghavendra, “Tappa sahi pakadna padega (get the length right).” He also got beaten by a throw that reared from length.

“Rohit bhai, pull maaro naa (play the pull shot),” yelled one of the demanding young fans from outside. Rohit just left the next delivery.

With the chatter about his form gaining decibels and rumours about an imminent retirement post Sydney gaining traction, Rohit’s answers about himself were short.

When someone has one double digit score in five innings, he wants to be left alone but then commitments needed to be honoured.

Asked about his batting position, he was borderline irritated.

“Let’s not worry about that. I think who bats where, we should be discussing that within ourselves and I shouldn’t be answering this question in every press conference,” the skipper said, trying to hold his composure.

At the onset, he informed that his knee which was hurt while batting on an old practice track, was “fine”.

Then next question was a “flighted query” on where he stood with regards to his batting form.

“After last Test (in Brisbane) we had two sessions. What could have possibly changed in two days?” he countered with a wry smile.

As usual, he didn’t give away anything about whether playing two spinners while factoring in the Melbourne heat was feasible or not.

The inimitable Rohit was back lacing everything with a bit of humour when asked what led to the selection of Tanush Kotian over Kuldeep Yadav.

“Well Kuldeep didn’t have visa,” he smiled before informing that the wrist spinner is still not hundred percent fit.

“Axar couldn’t travel as he has had a baby. I am not saying Tanush is bad but he is here more as a cover,” he said.

The five-match series is levelled at 1-1 with all to play for in the remaining two matches in Melbourne and Sydney.