MUMBAI: For all his tremendous talent and potential, Rohit Sharma, who will turn 25 later this month, has not played a single Test. Rohit, though, is not letting this setback affect him. "I don't want to put pressure on myself by thinking about it. I already face enough pressure when I play for Mumbai in domestic cricket or in the IPL. I am satisfied with what I have done...I need to be patient, stay calm and positive. I know that day will come," he tells TOI.
Has he talked to Sachin Tendulkar about it? "Not specifically about this, but we do talk a lot about cricket, about technique," he says. The maestro had recently marked out Rohit and Virat as batsmen who may even go on to score more international hundreds than him. "He has a lot of belief in me. I don't want to disappoint him. It was a huge compliment from him... considering that he never gives statements like that casually," Rohit says.
Presently, Rohit is getting over his disappointments in Australia by smashing the bowlers in the IPL. He took couple of games to warm up before turning it on with a match-winning, unbeaten 73 against his former team Hyderabad. "In the absence of Sachin Tendulkar, it was up to me to take us through," Rohit says. In the IPL, Rohit has acquired the reputation of a deadly finisher. That evening in Vizag, he took 19 runs off Daniel Christian's last over to add to that reputation. Back in 2009, he blasted 26 runs off Mashrafe Mortaza to pull off a stunning win for Team Hyderabad over Team Kolkata.
"I have played shots here that I would never have played before. The IPL has given me a lot of confidence," Rohit says. Mumbai's motto is the same as India's was during the World Cup: 'Win it for Sachin.' "Harbhajan has said that we must win it for him. We have explosive batsmen, a well-balanced team. We have started well and we need to carry on," Rohit says.
© Times of India
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