CHENNAI: No global event in cricket can be as success without India’s participation and importantly its star players in full flow. For a while skipper Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli have not been informed as per their tall standards. On Friday against the West Indies Rohit struck form with a 64 in the T20 which India won handsomely.
Australian pace legend Glenn McGrath who is in the city along with chief coach M Senthilnathan is training budding fast bowlers at the MRF Pace Foundation is happy to see Rohit back among runs. He is also pleased that Hardik Pandya is bowling his full quota of overs. With the T20 World Cup being held in Australia later this year, everyone wants India players to get back into the groove for the marquee event.
“Rohit coming back to form is good news. He is a class player and you want him to be doing well. One saw Shubman doing well get a good score the other day in the West Indies. The batsmen doing their job in the West Indies. You want to see your senior players doing well in the leading into a big tournament (World Cup),” said McGrath.
Pandya started bowling slowly in the IPL and is now bowling his full quota of overs regularly. Generally bowlers who come back after injury tend to begin bowling slowly and then begin to start bowling fast. Some players start to bowl flat out once again. “Hardik has to decide how he wants to bowl. That’s up to him to decide. He has got to work out what works for him. When I came back from injury I wanted to be bowling at top way straight away and have that confidence and no fear,” said MCGrath.
“Bowling quick is very much a confident sport and I think that Hardik is a confident player. When he’s bowling well it probably has a positive impact in his batting. When he’s batting well it has a positive influence on his bowling, so yes he’s two players in one. He is a luxury you want. He’s a good bowler, quite intelligent bowler and he’s a powerful hitter. He has got a good game plan. He sort of puts himself in a batsman’s shoes,” said McGrath.
England all-rounder Ben Stokes retired from ODI due to overload. This brings us the relevance of ODIs in T20 world. “I am very much a traditionalist. I like my ODIs. I hope that is protected and still held in high regard. I liked ODIs, Test cricket is still the ultimate to me. I want that to be held in high regard. T20 is growing. The money is in T20 cricket. Play all the T20 franchises. To be honest, a lot of players, lot of youngsters coming up will look to play T20s. They have got to keep making it (ODI’s) exciting. They have got a few challenges,’’ signed off McGrath.