The hook shot has become almost extinct in cricket these days. The pull is en vogue and a lot of players, armed with the modern-day bats, play the shot with impunity. They carry the confidence of mishits clearing the rope. Rohit Sharma playing the pull shot is different. He embellishes it with languid elegance. On Saturday, in the third ODI against Afghanistan at Chepauk, Rohit brought out the hook.
Ziaur Rahman bowled an effort ball on off stump but it didn’t rise as expected. The delivery wasn’t that short either. Rohit was initially committed on the front foot. He adjusted and on one leg — the Nataraja style, and Kapil Dev would approve — he hooked it over long leg for a six. When did he last play the shot? The mind raced back to draw an analogy with Sunil Gavaskar at Feroz Shah Kotla in 1983. The Little Master had brought out the hook from the cupboard almost after a decade, against Malcolm Marshall on his way to equalling Don Bradman’s 29 Test hundreds.
Great players can tap into the muscle memory more comfortably than the lesser mortals. During a conversation with Sitanshu Kotak — the current Indian team batting coach — many years ago, when he was the head coach of the Saurashtra Ranji team, the domestic stalwart elaborated on the muscle-memory factor. If my memory serves me right, he spoke about how normal players need around 17,000 repetitions to make something part of their muscle memory. In the case of a genius like Sachin Tendulkar, the number is much less. Special players also have a bigger muscle-memory reservoir.
Rohit playing the hook was right out of that loch. He wasn’t set-up to play the shot and decided at the last moment. He still can play late.
Rohit scored 79 off 69 balls. He had a couple of reprieves upfront, but then he got into the groove and played some delightful shots. An inside-out drive over cover off Rashid Khan was exquisite. Coming into this game, he had only one half-century in his last eight ODIs. On Saturday, he scored his 34th half-ton in this format.
But Rohit was rightly upset with the manner of his dismissal. Nine times out of ten, he was sending that short delivery from Mohammad Nabi into the stands. Today, he miscued and found the deep mid-wicket fielder. A century was there for the taking. At this stage of his career, though, Rohit’s value goes beyond the hard numbers.
“Of course Rohit bhaiya is always helpful,” Yashasvi Jaiswal told the host broadcaster after scoring an unbeaten 110 off 86 balls. “I always ask him questions to get help and implement in the game. Today when I was facing dot balls, he was telling me to just rotate the strike and keep the intent. I always enjoy being with him, and playing with him. Everything is just amazing.”
England next.
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