As India A trounced the visiting Sri Lankan side at the CCI in a warm-up match, most eyes were on one man who walked out to open the batting for the Indian side. Rohit Sharma has been out of competitive cricket since he had to return home from England after the second ODI. Since then he has missed the CLT20 and the curtailed series against West Indies.
Rohit was left out of the Indian squad for the first three ODIs against Sri Lanka so that his fitness could be assessed in the warm-up match before he could regain his place in the national side. And the newly turned opening batsman erased all doubts, not only about his fitness but also form, with a brilliant and fluent 142 off 111.
Talking to the media after Rohit’s knock helped India A defeat the Lankans by 88 runs, coach, Sanjay Bangar, who is also now the assistant coach of Team India, showered praise on Rohit.
“He is a quality player and he didn’t get a game (for so long) because of injury,” Bangar said of Rohit. “His match fitness had to be assessed and that was the reason the selectors wanted to see him bat here first.”
Indeed, the chief of the national selection panel, Sandeep Patil, was watching Rohit from close quarters from a viewing box at the stadium. And Bangar was certain Patil would have been impressed with what he saw.
“I thought Rohit gave a fantastic account of himself,” Bangar said. “He has been practicing really hard over the last 10 days at the BKC. The total recovery process from being seriously injured to batting the way he did today – he showed no discomfort – was impressive. He also fielded throughout the 50 overs and these are good signs for the Indian team.”
Besides Rohit’s form, Bangar was pleased to see many other positives coming out from the match for Indian cricket.
“There were a lot of positives, especially the way we got big partnerships for the first and second wicket and the way these guys ran between the wickets. In fielding, we were playing a team of eleven and they had their full squad at their disposal. That was an ideal challenge for the boys and the bowlers responded terrifically well,” Bangar said.
The former Railways all-rounder also had encouraging words to say about Manish Pandey, India A’s another centurion. “Manish has been scoring really well for his state team consistently,” he said. “He also had a fantastic IPL where he won the final for KKR.
“He has always been on the fringes and this innings will give him a lot of confidence because it has come after we were put in to bat and you always expect the CCI wicket to do a bit in the first hour. From that perspective it must have been very satisfying for Manish,” Bangar said, referring to Pandey’s unbeaten 135.
Bangar singled Dhawal Kulkarni out for praise when it came to bowlers. “Also a word about Dhawal. He picked up a wicket with the new ball and in the second powerplay too he showed the varieties he is capable of bowling, whether it is the slow bouncer or trying out different angles. He bowled really well.”
When asked if their defeat against India A side would have hit the Sri Lankan team’s confidence ahead of the ODI series, Bangar replied in the negative.
“For a touring team the result of such a match doesn’t matter as much; it matters more to the home side. From the visiting team’s perspective, they just want to look at all the options and cover all the areas.
“They would want to see everyone in the squad and then pick the best XI against us. They are a quality side and were recently crowned as world champions in one format. They have a formidable lineup.”
