Rohit Sharma gives his views on playing aerial shots

Rohit Sharma says that youngsters should have the freedom to express themselves, and believes that playing aerial or flamboyant shots is not a crime if it translates into success. The India opener had a fabulous year on the circuit across formats, scoring 10 hundreds, including five in the World Cup. He also scored a double ton in the Test series against South Africa.

“There is nothing harm in playing big shots, trying to play a flamboyant cover drive. When we were growing up and used to play shots in the air, we were taken out of the nets, which was not right because eventually you want the results,” said Rohit.

“If the guy is giving you results by playing the big shots, there is nothing wrong in that. As a young kid, growing in this generation, you want to play shots. You want to look good (while batting) but again it is very important what they think of their game and what understanding they have about the game,” Rohit Sharma added.

“What we need to be careful of is, if the player is doing mistakes again and again, then he needs to be told how he should go about it next time. I mean playing shots is not a crime.”

He added that the young players should be backed to play shots if it is a part of their natural game. “I would encourage that to play shots if they want to but at the same time they need to understand that they need to produce results, that’s the game. You score 100 off 50 balls or 200 balls, it doesn’t matter, it still is a hundred.”

“I mean if the guy is confident in his skills, I would back that skill. There should not be any restriction on how these young players want to bat. They should be allowed to bat freely, that’s how they will produce results.”