Rohit Sharma: Bowlers need to be more pro-active

Last updated on Tuesday, 13 October, 2015, 07:26 PM

• Being a top-order batsman, it is a responsibility to bat through the innings and get your team to a winning position: Rohit Sharma.
• In the last two years, he has scored eight hundreds. I don't see any kind of concern with Shikhar Dhawan: Rohit Sharma.
  
• Indian opener Rohit Sharma, who has already scored two centuries in the home series against South Africa - albeit in losing causes, spoke of his intention to bat as deep as possible in a run-chase, irrespective of conditions. The classy Mumbai batsman also backed his compatriot Ajinkya Rahane to excel amidst growing pressure and spoke of the need for the bowlers to be more pro-active against the likes of AB de Villiers & Co.
  On batting in India
  See, if you ask me, it is not just about batting in India. I want to keep going, there is no doubt about it. Being a top-order batsman, it is a responsibility to bat through the innings and get your team to a winning position. I want to bat as much as possible, anywhere. In India, obviously, where we've played all our cricket, we know the conditions much better than any other place in the World. That's a slight advantage when you play in India. You know the conditions better, the outfield better. Whenever you bat you try and make most of it. I always try to bat as long as possible.
  On batting with Rahane
  When you are chasing big scores, you have to be ahead of the run rate a bit. You have to keep rotating the strike so that pressure doesn't build up too much. Now that rule has changed, with five fielders outside, you can't keep too many runs for last 5-6 overs. That was the idea when Rahane and I were batting. We spoke about the need to keep rotating the strike and we did that pretty well. But I felt we should've upped the ante a little bit more in the middle. We were in a good position but in the end we know what happened. But, it's part and parcel of the game. These things happen. There are no excuses. We want to strive hard as a team. If we want to be number one, we cannot make these kinds of mistakes. I hope we won't keep repeating them. That's what champions do - they don't repeat mistakes. I think we're all mature enough to go out and handle pressure.
  As far as Rahane is concerned, he was playing his first game. He was batting at a new position. I thought he batted pretty well, complemented me well. Coming from the same state, playing a lot of cricket together, we know each other's batting really well. That also mattered a little bit because we ran between the wickets very well and rotated the strike. He got off to a very good start and I am sure he will want to capitalise on it now.
  On Shikhar Dhawan's form
  Shikhar was the highest run-getter in World Cup, scored two beautiful hundreds. He was the highest run-getter in Bangladesh. A couple of poor games shouldn't be a worry. He's probably one of our better batsman in the last few years. In the last two years, he has scored eight hundreds - that's simply not a joke. I don't see any kind of concern with Shikhar Dhawan. He's batting as well as he was before.
  On repeated run outs
  In T20s you have to be alert, you have to put the pressure on the fielders and run hard. In doing that you may get a couple of run outs. I don't think that's a problem, these things happen. It's normal. 
  On the importance of concentration after a century
  It's been an effort. After you get a hundred, you tend to relax a little bit and lose your concentration. That's when you can challenge yourself as a batsman - how long can you push yourself? That's what I was trying to do. Specially on a wicket like Kanpur where we knew that it was not going to be easy for a new batsman to come in and start playing his shots. It was my responsibility to play as deep as possible after getting a 100, not throw it away. I am sure you guys are happy that I didn't throw it away after the 100. If you have one batsman playing all through the innings, it makes life a lot simpler in a chase.
  On the wicket
  The wicket looks good. There have been high scores. Virender Sehwag scored his double ton here so we know what needs to be done. Whether dew will play a part or not is not clear yet. 
  On bowling concerns
  It is a concern, we cannot run away from that. When you're bowling to players like AB de Villiers, you have to be extra-smart and more pro-active. All the fast bowlers are working on it. I feel they just need to be more pro-active, that will help us. In Bangladesh and Australia as well, we were making small, small mistakes in the last 5-10 overs. That shouldn't be a concern now because we have an extra fielder outside the circle. I know we can plan accordingly and get the best results.
  On selection dilemma
  It's a thought we need to look into carefully. What we do with our players as to the batting order, really depends on what MS thinks about it. I know Virat has scored most of his runs batting at No. 3 and Ajinkya has got the number 3 spot and scored some runs. I don't think it is a permanent solution. Time will tell what the ideal batting line-up is for us. The number three, four and five are very crucial positions in any format. I feel it entirely depends on what MS thinks about it. We also have Mr. Ravi Shastri, Bharat Arun and Sanjay Bangar to get the thought process going. Whatever they decide to do, it will be best for the team. At the moment we are trying to find out the best combination going forward. 
  On big team totals
  It looks like a very good track but with new rules coming in, I don't think 350s will be scored more often. You need to bat very well. The average score here is around 300 so that will be the benchmark. I am not a firm believer in predicting scores. If we bat well, we can get 350-plus also.