Internet Desk: Three times Indian Premier League champions Rohit Sharma batted at No.4 in the IPL season 10. But according to the Mumbai batsman, he wouldn’t have any issue to open for the Indian team in the forthcoming ICC Champions Trophy in England as both the formats are completely different. Rohit had scored 333 runs from 17 matches while batting at No.4. Rohit feels that in the modern day cricket, players across the globe can adopt the changing formats with an ease.
“When you play for India, it’s a different format. I don’t see why people compare IPL and international cricket. My requirement here (with Mumbai Indians) was in the middle-order, and that’s what I did,” said Rohit while addressing a press conference in Mumbai.
“We realised at the start of the IPL that it’s better for me to bat down the order to get that balance right. I go there (to play for India), it’s a different thing. I don’t see that we need to make any comparisons when it comes to the IPL and international cricket,” he added.
“For the last 10 years, we have been playing in IPL. Then we go and play 50-over games and Test matches. So, I don’t think, at this point, it is difficult for anyone, adjust. It’s just in your mind that you have to keep reminding yourself that you need to change your mentality in terms of the format you are going to play,” the right-hander said.
Rohit was detached with cricket since October 2016 as he suffered a thigh injury during New Zealand series and had gone under a surgery too. The 30-year old fiery batsman has so far played 21 Tests, 153 ODIs and 62 T20I for India and has scored 1184, 5131 and 1364 runs respectively.
He is the only batsman in world cricket to score two double centuries and a 250 in ODIs. India will start their Champions Trophy campaign against arch-rivals Pakistan on June 4 at Edgbaston.