It is no secret that one of the major reasons behind Team India’s good showing in one-day internationals over the past 3 years has been the scintillating performance of the top order. India’s top three include Shikhar Dhawan, vice-captain Rohit Sharma and captain Virat Kohli, who form the backbone of the team.

A look at the individual records of these three players since January 2016 will further enunciate the point. Kohli leads the list with 3599 runs from 54 matches at an average of 89.97. He has scored 16 centuries during this period. Rohit Sharma has 3083 runs under his belt from the same number of matches at an average of 68.51, while Shikhar Dhawan has contributed 2274 runs from 50 matches at an average of 49.43.

This clearly shows the impact the duo of Kohli and Rohit have had on the fortunes of the Indian team. When Rohit and Kohli fire, India invariably go on to win the match. But a look at Rohit Sharma’s record closely in bilateral series in the SENA (South Africa, England, New Zealand, Australia) countries show a lack of consistency, which could be disconcerting, given India play the World Cup in England in a few months where they will face all the top teams.

One can argue that there is no need to worry as Rohit has a great record in England, having scored 687 runs from 15 matches at an average of 57.25, but consistency is still very important given the format of the World Cup this time. And the series against New Zealand is a great chance for Rohit to not just work on the consistency factor, but also put straight his record in New Zealand.

A look at this table shows Rohit has a below par record in countries like New Zealand and South Africa and a good show in the backyard of the Kiwis could go a long way in giving confidence to the team management.

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The other thing that has been a Rohit Sharma trademark in the past few years is his ability to play big knocks in ODIs. While this is great news for Team India, what it invariably does is mask his inconsistency quite well. Barring his performance against Australia in 2015/16, if we look at bilateral series from New Zealand in 2013/14, the story has mostly been about one good knock accompanied by low scores. These data points will help explain our analysis further -

IND in NZ 2013/14:145 runs including one fifty -79 at Hamilton

Rest in the series: 3, 20 ,39 and 4

IND in SA 2017/18: Out 170 runs, he scored 115 in the 5th ODI which accounts 67.64 % of runs.

Rest in the series: 20,15,0,5 and 15 runs

IND in ENG ,2018: He smashed 137* in the first ODI.

Rest in the two matches 15 and 2 runs, IND lost both the matches.

IND in AUS, 2018/19: 133 in the first ODI.

Rest in the two matches: 43 and 9.

Rohit did not make a major contribution in the 1st ODI as India needed to chase down a low score. He would want to continue his good form from the Australia series and put together a series of scores which will put on an end to the consistency debate for now. If runs flow freely from the bat of India’s vice-captain, it will bring down the pressure on the likes of Virat Kohli and even MS Dhoni, and that could just be the clincher for the ‘Men in Blue’.

First Published: Jan 25, 2019 15:00 IST