‘Rohit Sharma’s defence has actually gotten much better’ – Sanjay Manjrekar on Rohit Sharma’s performance in longer formats

Famous Indian commentator and former cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar recently talked about Rohit Sharma’s batting performance for the Indian cricket team in ODI cricket. Manjrekar believes Rohit Sharma has consistently performed better since the ODI World Cup 2019 held in England. Notably, Rohit Sharma struck brilliant centuries in the ODI World Cup 2019 to lead India from the front and score runs as an opening batsman. 

Rohit Sharma will have a crucial role to play as the captain of the Indian cricket team in the upcoming marquee tournaments, the Asia Cup, 2023 and the ODI World Cup, 2023, which will be hosted by India. Sanjay Manjarekar also discussed KL Rahul’s role in the team as an opener or a middle-order batsman, since India’s number one T20 player, Suryakumar Yadav has not made a strong impact in the one-day format of cricket and keeps the fans and Cricket expert in the hope for a striking performance in ODIs. 

Sanjay Manjrekar and Rohit Sharma’s performance in ODIs

“He got 5 hundred in the last World Cup, right? My assessment of Rohit Sharma is that his defence has actually gotten much better. He is a much better Test player now than he was in 2019. So I have no issues. It’s about converting those starts into big hundreds because that involves running a lot of ones and twos later on in the innings. But, on the pure quality of defence, Rohit is better today. That natural ability to hit the big shots is still there,” said Sanjay Manjarekar. 

“KL Rahul coming in at that position is good for Indian cricket because they wanted to test his match fitness out. If India is looking to test the waters before the World Cup, then you must give Suryakumar a game. His One-Day credentials are still in doubt and we don’t know if he would make the same kind of impact,” added Sanjay Manjarekar.