The current Indian team is a pretty solid unit, who are doing well in all three sectors of the game. Having said that, they have one minor fault which has been there for a long time now. Prior to this year’s ICC Cricket World Cup, many pundits raised questions on who will be India’s number 4 in the batting order. The question has haunted the men in blue for quite a while, but Rohit Sharma finally seems to have the answer.
The trusted opener of Virat Kohli’s team believes that fellow Mumbaikar Shreyas Iyer is all set to be India’s batsman at number four in the years to come. Iyer, who happens to be the skipper of Indian Premier League side Delhi Capitals, was a part of the Indian team that played in the recently concluded bilateral series against West Indies. He was fairly commendable in the series, scoring 130 runs in 3 ODIs.
Iyer maintained a healthy average of over 40 and gathered runs at a pacy strike rate of over 100. The men in blue would want to win the ICC World T20 this year, and Sharma feels Iyer is the perfect number four batsman for the team. “Shreyas knows that he will now bat at No.4 for years to come. He feels secure and can now execute his plans freely. The other guys will first need to make the respective spots their own. KL has had a good time and will go in with a good mindset moving forward,” said the Mumbaikar, as per quotes in Hindustan Times.
Sharma has his money on the youngsters
Rohit Sharma believes that the young guns of the team will start playing more matches as a unit. “Shreyas (Iyer) is No.4 now and he is doing pretty well. Rishabh (Pant) did well in the West Indies ODIs. Shivam (Dube) has started doing well. So, I am confident, our youngsters will step up,” Sharma said.
“The problem is that between KL (Rahul), Rishabh, Shreyas, and Shivam, they haven’t played many matches together as a team. But that will happen now and once that happens, they will get some confidence. Things are changing now. We can’t really judge them as a group after two or three matches. We need to wait till they have played sufficient matches together,” the veteran opener further added. India will take on New Zealand from the 24th of this month.
