Rohit Sharma a natural batsman, will succeed in Tests: Michael Atherton
Rohit Sharma is considered as one of the greatest batsmen of white-ball cricket but when it comes to Test cricket, the Indian opener has still not lived up to the expectations. Rohit has been in and out from the Test squad till the team management tried him as an opener in Tests as well. The Mumbai-born has played 5 Test matches as an opener for India and has scored 556 runs in which he hit three centuries which includes his highest Test score - 212.
Former England captain Michael Atherton hailed Rohit Sharma and backed him to do well in the longest format of the game.
“I watch Rohit and think well you can’t not be successful at Test level. He just looks such a good player that you’d think that success will come. The one thing I do enjoy watching and this is a general point about Indian batsmen is that they look very natural to me and not over-coached and forced or stilted,” Atherton said on the Sony Ten Pit Stop Show.
Atherton revealed that he once asked former India captain Rahul Dravid why Indian batsmen looked more natural than England's. Dravid, who was the coach of the Under-19 cricket replied that Indian players are not overcoached.
“I was chatting to Rahul Dravid a couple of years ago. I was asking him why he felt that India’s players looked more natural and less forced than England’s at that level. He thought it was do with the fact that India’s cricketers all year around play, and because of the weather in England, a lot of English players spend six months indoors on bowling machines and it can look a bit forced after that... a bit overcoached,” Atherton said.
“He felt a lot of India’s young batsmen were learning in play rather than being coached personally. So I always enjoy watching that about watching Indian batsmen, they look very natural and fluid and fluent and of course, no better example than Rohit Sharma.”
