Rohit Sharma and those daddy hundreds look a thing of yesterday now. Though the Indian captain has not played many ODIs since 2020, he has not been able to score big hundreds in the format. Sharma's last score of 150-plus came in 2019 against West Indies in December. The Indian captain has the record for the most number of double tons hit by any player in ODIs as he has recorded three double hundreds.
Sharma has claimed that the decline of his big scores is due to him playing more aggressive cricket than before. He has stated that he is looking to take more risks. "I wanted to take more risks, which is why my numbers are slightly different now. My (ODI) strike rate (during this period) has increased but the average has dipped a bit. This is exactly what our batting coach (Vikram Rathour) was telling me, ‘You have scored big runs because of the way you batted all these years and in the last few years, it (big runs) has not happened because you are taking risk," Sharma said in an interview with PTI.
He added that everyone wants to get big scores ahead of their name and he still has a desire for that. "Everyone wants to bat long and score those 150s and 170s. I still want to do that, but it is always nice to do something that you have not done. It only adds up to your list of batting abilities. Unless you do it, you won't know it," he added.
Sharma also stated that it was he who wanted to change his playing style and also informed the same to the team management. "I know if I play high-risk shots, I will get out a few times but I didn't bother. This was communicated by me to the management that this is how I want to play. It was purely my choice. My usual batting is still my patent, but I wanted to try something else. I am very happy with the result," the 36-year-old stated.
