After major surgery, difficult part is to conquer inner demons, says Rohit Sharma

Rohit Sharma returned to action on the international front with the ICC Champions Trophy. (Source: File)

Rohit Sharma underwent a six month injury layoff while going under the knife in London following a hamstring injury. The right handed batsman was out of competitive cricket for six months – from October 2016 to April 2017 – with the injury. But has since made a comeback in the ODI competitions in the ICC Champions Trophy and in the IPL. Since his comeback, Rohit has scored three hundreds in 10 games.

“Comebacks are not at all easy. After a major surgery, the difficult part is to conquer the inner demons. It’s all in the mind. Only an individual can overcome his fears. My batting may look easy to the eye but trust me, it’s not that easy,” Rohit said to PTI.

For him, the immediate arrival of IPL came as a blessing as he felt little time to get any nerves as he handled the challenge of being the captain of Mumbai Indians and batting in the middle order. “The best part that happened to me was IPL started just after I completed my rehab. So while captaining Mumbai Indians and taking those on-field decisions, I couldn’t think about what happens if I get injured.”

“And when I was playing for India, my mind became blanks while batting. There was no place for any negativity,” said the 30-year-old

Akila Dananjaya caused problems for India in the second ODI of the five match series. He emerged with six wickets but couldn’t take the hosts to victory. However, by the next game Indian batsmen read his bowling a lot better. “The half-century was special but I didn’t face Dananjaya much during that match. I was out only one over after he was brought into the attack. But in the next two games, I got hundreds and I had no problems playing him. I realised that the speed of his googly was on the slower side while leg-breaks were faster. His off-break was easily negotiable. One thing we must know about these ‘Mystery Spinners’ — they are bound to bowl loose deliveries and Dananjaya is no different,” said Rohit.

With next assignment being the Australia series, Rohit says he gets accustomed to an upcoming contest based on the condition and not the opposition the team is facing. “To each his own but my process of preparation is based on conditions not opposition. It won’t be any different when we face Australia,” Rohit said. “In international cricket, the core group in most of the teams would remain same. So you know what’s expected but they will operate in different conditions which is why the homework about conditions is the key. You need to know the shots you can play on particular pitches, how you want to plan your innings,” Rohit elaborated.

Labelled as one of the hardest hitters in the game, Rohit tried to justify that it is about the technique more than the distance the ball travels. “It’s nothing like that. I know one thing. If your shot crosses the ropes, you get six runs — whether the ball travels 75m or 110 metres. So it’s not always about power but about timing, body balance and position.”

“It’s an honour. My job is to help Virat in the field. He is the captain and whenever he looks up around, I should be around to complement him and help him as much as I could,” he said on his vice captaincy role.