Sydney: Rohit Sharma, the holder of the highest individual score of 264, does not want his record to be broken.
Responding to a query whether he feared New Zealand’s Martin Guptill would have broken his record during the course of his unbeaten knock of 237 against West Indies last week, Rohit said: “Records are there to be broken. I don’t wish that it is broken but every batsman wants to make a big score. It is not possible to make 200 every day. It’s a very tough job.”
Rohit pointed out that no batsman is ‘satisfied’ with a score. “Even when I made 264, I was told I should have made 300. People’s expectations are high. Even if you make 300, they may expect 350. Cricket is moving to a different level,” he said.
It will be an emotional moment for Rohit if India can retain the World Cup as he had missed the cut for 2011 World Cup following a string of poor scores in the series against South Africa before the World Cup.
“When I missed the 2011 World Cup, I was quite sad because it was a home World Cup. Unfortunately, I couldn’t be a part of that team. But I was happy the team won. We’re not doing anything different now. We’ve been here for the last four months. When we lost the Test series and failed to qualify for the final of the tri-series, all the boys got charged for the World Cup and changed our attitude. Quickly we realised what mistakes we were making.”
Rohit is not bothered about David Warner’s sledging, which he experienced once or any criticism over his batting. “Whenever I wear the Indian jersey, it’s a motivation. I don’t need someone else to pump me up. It’s important for me whenever I wear that India cap I need to go and perform. I know that. I bat the way I want to and nothing, and I will make sure that nothing, gets into the head.”
Sharma then went on to talk about his technique and ability to score at a brisk pace. “I try to keep it very simple — I just bat and don’t think about balls. If I see wickets falling in front of me, I have to make sure that I bat because I know with the powerplay and the five fielders inside, you can always come up and score runs.”
Does he practice to play any experimental shots as most of his shots are proper cricketing strokes?
“Since I play good shots, I don’t think I need to play any ugly strokes. It is important when you play those big shots a lot of basics and a lot of technical issues goes into that particular thing. You have to hold your shape, and a lot of things go into that. So you just do that.
“I don’t think if you can stand straight and hit straight over the bowler’s head, I don’t think there is any reason for you to play those fancy shots.”