Rohit not certain about opening
MUMBAI: Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma on Sunday hinted that he might open the innings at some stage in the ongoing IPL but that will totally depend on the need of the team.
Rohit regularly opens for India in ODIs but has batted at no. 4 position in this IPL season.
“I would love to open, but you have to see certain things from the team’s perspective, find the right balance. (I) batting at 4 or 3 gives the team right balance,” said Rohit, who cracked an unbeaten 29-ball 40.
“Last year we felt we wanted someone to bat till the end which was not happening and we were not able to finish the games. I am open to anything whatever the team requires. I will go and open also and I am not closing my options right now,” he added.
Parthiv Patel and Jos Buttler have been opening the innings for MI with Nitish Rana showing plenty of promise at the number three spot.
Rana scored 53 in 36 balls early in the successful runchase.
“I am not going to change (the order) as there’s a brilliant batsman (Rana) at no. 3 right now. He has got the Orange cap. He’s a fearless batsman and takes on the bowlers. It’s his ideal spot,” said Rohit. Asked about his return to form in the tournament, he said, “I thought you will ask me about the win. I have been a bit let down at the start, it’s not the standard I set for myself, but what is gone is gone and I am not thinking about it. Lauding Mumbai Indians bowling attack for restricting them, Gujarat Lions’ assistant coach Mohammed Kaif said: “We were around 15 runs short. When Bhajji came in to bowl, he was quite good.”
The former India batsman also justified holding back Jason Roy and promoting young Ishan Kishan. “Since (Aaron) Finch missed out on this game, we had to have someone who can strike the ball lower down the order. Ishan still had a couple of overs to settle in and play a couple of big shots, probably. “So, there was a plan to have one more experienced guy as a back-up if a couple of wickets fell in the middle,” he said. Praveen Kumar gave the Lions a terrific start as he dismissed Parthiv in the first over. But Rana didn’t let the early reverse affect the team morale. He was lucky to be dropped by Jason Roy on nine and Kaif admitted it could have been a game-changing moment.