"Problem arises for India when Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma both get to the crease at the same time" - Saba Karim
That Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma are two titans for India when it comes to batting is an indisputable fact. But former wicketkeeper Saba Karim feels that due to their tendency to start slow and take time before being able to accelerate, India get in a difficult situation when the two are batting together at the crease.
Speaking on the Khelneeti podcast on YouTube, Saba Karim said:
"One big problem for India is both Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli are very similar players. They are orthodox players. They try in the middle to accelerate by hitting boundaries or sixes. The problem arises when both get to the crease at the same time, because then the strike rate naturally comes down."
Further elaborating on his point, he explained that neither plays risk-free cricket. According to Saba Karim, both end up consuming a lot of deliveries without improving the strike rate, which puts India in a spot of bother.
"They don't play risk-free cricket," he pointed out. "This is not to say they are not good players, but in T20s you need players who play risk-free cricket. Especially when India lose early wickets, they then both try to consolidate. Then they end up consuming a lot of deliveries without improving the strike rate. It’s a very difficult situation for India. Only when these players transform their style of play will it benefit India."
Saba Karim also said that India's approach of just rotating the strike won't work as opposition teams always have quality bowlers who will not let you run six runs in an over.
"No matter what the format, if you only focus on strike rotation and taking singles of all six balls then it won’t do good," he said. "It may work for one or two overs, but if you just want to rotate strike of five overs, it’s not possible because there are quality bowlers you are facing up against.
"If your mentality is just to take singles and rotate strikes, you can’t even get six runs off an over," he added. "The maximum you will manage is 4-5 runs in an over, which will see you fall short. So you need to punctuate singles with boundaries or sixes."
Coming into T20 World Cup with out-of-form batters was a big challenge for India: Saba Karim
Saba Karim pointed out that most of India's batters were not in great form in the second half of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021, which got over just before the start of the 2021 T20 World Cup.
"There was a big challenge for India coming into the World Cup," Saba Karim said. "If we look at the number of in-form players (batters) who make the playing XI, there are only few – KL Rahul and may be Rishabh Pant."
He also said that the warm-up matches gave the team the feeling that they are in good form, but they were not up against the same level of bowling that they would face in the World Cup.
"We started to think that because we won the warm-up matches easily, and players like Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli made runs, our team is solid and our batters are in form," he said. "So I think we didn’t consider that in the World Cup, you will be up against top quality bowlers."
Saba Karim also mentioned that the warm-up matches took place in different grounds in the UAE than the ones where they would play the World Cup games.
"Another point is that the warm-up matches happened in different grounds, not the main stadiums where the World Cup matches are being played," he said. "So the lack of form of batters has still continued."
India take on Afghanistan later today in a must-win match.