India opening batsman Rohit Sharma is going through a purple patch. With the kind of form he is in at the top of the order, and that too ahead of the ICC World T20 2016, the opponents need to watch out for the 'Hitman,' as he is popularly known.
There was an eerie similarity between the wicket in Pune (1st T20 against Sri Lanka a couple of weeks ago) and the one at the Shere Bangla Stadium on Wednesday. It was green and the presence of grass definitely would assist the seamers early on in the innings.
Shikhar Dhawan departed early and he was soon followed by Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina. But one man stayed put at the crease almost till the end of the Indian innings, and that man was none other than Rohit.
Rohit was a little lucky as he was dropped by Shakib Al Hasan at backward point when the batsman was only on 21. But immediately after that drop, Rohit changed gears.
Prior to that life, Rohit's strike rate was hovering around 100, but after that it kept rising up. Rohit went on to add 62 more runs to his name. His innings of 83 runs from just 55 balls powered India to a total of 166 on a wicket that was difficult to bat on.
Undoubtedly, Rohit makes batting looks easy when he gets going and that was just what India needed on Wednesday, after they lost early wickets. Rohit's partnership with Hardik Pandya towards the end of the innings also hurt Bangladesh.
MS Dhoni was mightily impressed with the way Rohit batted against Bangladesh in the opening game of the Asia Cup T20 2016.
"I still feel that Rohit's batting was special. We required a partnership. And that was the right time. When Hardik went in, he started playing the big shots," Dhoni was quoted as saying by PTI.
"At that time, Rohit made sure that he got a little more strike and he himself will be there till the end. He used the pace of the bowler. They were bowling back of a length, he played the cut shot.
"He actually exploited the field. So I feel that was the kind of batting that was really needed and because of which Hardik could also express himself.
"We got those extra 15-20 runs. Otherwise we thought that 140 would be a very good score."
India will next face their archrivals Pakistan on Saturday at the same venue.
