Have to prepare for 10/3 situations: Rohit Sharma sets sight on middle-order to end India's ICC-title drought

BCCI named Rohit Sharma as Team India's ODI captain on Wednesday (December 8) as Hitman replaced Virat Kohli from the top post. Thus, he has now become India's limited-overs captain having already succeeded Kohli in T20Is. 

While Kohli will continue to lead in Tests, Rohit will now be looked upon to end India's eight-year-long ICC-title drought. Under Kohli, India reached the 2017 Champions Trophy final and 2019 ODI World Cup semifinal, however, couldn't return with the mega titles. 

In the CT'2017 final, CWC'19 semis and during India's first two games in their horrible 2021 T20 World Cup campaign, their top-order failed and the middle-order couldn't revive their fortunes. Thus, new captain Rohit wants middle-order to prepare for 10/3 kind of situations going forward. 

ALSO READ | Virat Kohli had the character, game and personality to step into MS Dhoni's shoes, says Ravi Shastri

Rohit was asked on YouTube show Backstage with Boria if he has been able to figure out what went wrong in those games.

To this, Rohit said, "To be honest, not really. I would say it was that initial phase of the game where we lost the game. So that's something I'll keep in mind and see that we prepare for the worst. We have to prepare when the team is 10 for 3. That's how I want to move forward and get the message across to the boys that guys who are batting at No. 3, 4, 5, 6, there's nowhere written that if you are 10 for 2 or 3 [in a T20I], you can't get 180 or you can't get 190, or maybe more.

"I want the guys to prepare in that fashion. Let's say we are playing the semi-final and we are 10 for 2 in the first two overs, what do we do? What is the plan? I want to put ourselves in that situation again and see if we can respond to that. We have got some games before the World Cup to try and test that out. Because if you look there is a similarity between all three games that we lost - two Pakistan games and one New Zealand game in three ICC tournaments," he added.

ALSO READ | 'Haven't seen someone....' - THROWBACK! When Virat Kohli shared his first impression of batsman Rohit Sharma

Rohit further pointed out, "I do understand that the quality of the bowling was exceptional at that point, but it has happened three times. I hope that it doesn't happen for the fourth time. So hopefully we will prepare for that, keeping that situation in mind and move forward and see how we can plan - whether we can just counterattack straight from ball one, whoever batter goes in.

"And then I don't want people to think that, 'Oh, they are 10 for 2, what shot is he playing?' The commentators, the people of India or anywhere else, they need to understand that this is a plan of the team."

Will Dravid-Rohit take India to glory?

Rohit and new head coach Rahul Dravid will look to end India's title-woes as the national side have plenty of ICC events to take part in the future. For the unversed, Rohit has also been promoted as India's Test vice-captain. He has replaced an under-performing Ajinkya Rahane.