Rohit was a waste of talent four years back: Dhoni

Melbourne, March 19 (IANS) Indian skipper Mahendra Singh said on Thursday that comparing opener Rohit Sharma now to what he was four years back is quite unrealistic as he thought it was a waste of talent back then.

Rohit, who hit a match-winning 137 off 126 balls, was at his sublime best in the World Cup quarter-final against Bangladesh at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). He clobbered the bowlers all around the park ensuring that India had a formidable total of 302 on the scoreboard.

They later bowled out Bangladesh for 193 winning the contest by 109 runs.

“It is an unrealistic comparison if you compare Rohit now to what he was four years back. It was a bit of a waste of talent," Dhoni said at the post-match media conference.

"He wasn't getting much opportunity to bat as our top order was fixed. They fired and he never got a chance to open the innings, he just could not come in and play down the order," he added.

“After some of his performances in the last few years, we decided to make him the opener and he obliged. He is a natural strokemaker and once he gets going he scores a lot of runs.” 

The skipper said getting runs in the batting powerplay set them up for the onslaught in the last 10 overs.

“Getting 45 runs in the powerplay, gave us momentum getting into the slog overs. That is what we have done in the last few games, playing good cricketing shots,” he said.

Asked if he was happy with the batsmen being circumspect upfront or if he wanted somebody to do a Virender Sehwag, who would blaze away in the first few overs, Dhoni said, “Viru pa was special. You need to play according to your strengths, you can’t just go out and slog. You just have to keep revising the target at the end of 10 overs and see where you are and then back your strengths.

Commenting on the catch that Shikhar Dhawan took to get rid of the in-form Mahmudullah, the skipper said: ”T20 has brought this into the game. Even in Test matches now you can see this, just that the awareness is there and the fielders know what is to be done. Things keep changing according to the demands of game and the men patrolling the boundaries now are much fitter.”

Dhoni also stressed upon the fact that the team was trying to keep it simple as there is a lot of pressure on them to defend their title.

“We have done well to keep things simple. Over-thinking can kill you,” he said.