Rohit Sharma's high-risk game has allowed Virat Kohli to be unapologetically Virat Kohli ©AFP
"You get batters who are so stubborn. I speak from experience of sitting in a dressing room where a lot of players were hesitant to make a change because they were afraid of what they might lose," recalled Ravi Shastri, ex-India coach, on Star Sports during the opening game of World Cup 2023.
It was a stinging statement from a man who was recently in a vantage position to some of the big events in Indian cricket, and at a time when public criticism didn't come often from those circles. No one was singled out by name, but it a blatant comment on India's thought process in revamping their white-ball batting plans.
Of course, it didn't need Shastri to spell out that particular change, but none embodied that process more than skipper Rohit Sharma from the time he had taken over captaincy from Virat Kohli.
Apart from Sharma himself pointing out what his approach to the game had been, a cursory glance at his numbers tell a story in itself. From 2013 to 2021, Sharma's powerplay strike-rate hovered just over 70 (71.19 to be precise). This was the time when he played the role of a traditional opener in the format, of accumulating runs before turning it on in the end. In this period, he remained a
