Finch says Rohit Sharma realises that Virat Kohli’s got his back to continue his charged attack in the ODI Powerplays. (Reuters)
Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli have been the cornerstones of India’s ODI batting for well over a decade. However, the change in approach that the current India captain and opener has embraced in the format has done wonders for India, who have won all but one match across three ICC limited-overs events in the 2023 ODI World Cup, last year’s T20 World Cup and the Champions Trophy 2025 in Dubai earlier this month.
Former Australia captain Aaron Finch, however, believes that Rohit’s unfiltered aggression at the top is close to impossible without the cushion that Kohli offers at his favoured No. 3 spot in ODIs. Finch remarked that Rohit’s batting is fraught with numerous risks in the Powerplay and that the 37-year-old continues to hold onto the method knowing that Kohli has got his back.
“When you look, when Rohit’s made that conscious decision, he’s had Virat coming in behind him at number three. So there’s an ability for him to say, you know what, I’ve got the guy behind that will fix any mistakes that I make. But you can’t have everybody in the team just looking to swing for the fences from ball one. So that’s a really, that’s a good question. And I understand that Rohit’s done that, and he’s been very successful in doing it,” Finch told PTI.
While Kohli set up the Champions Trophy triumph with match-winning knocks against Pakistan and Australia in the semi-final, Rohit’s turbo-charged attack helped India cruise through a tricky final chase against New Zealand in Dubai. Finch said that Kohli will aim to play a similar role in IPL 2025 for Royal Challengers Bengaluru and that his job would be done if he amped up his strike rate by 10 runs.
“Maybe if his (Kohli) strike rate goes from 140 to 150, he can absolutely do that. No issues whatsoever. But how many times has he been in a situation where he’s had to almost dig RCB out of the hole because everybody else has fallen around him? So, like I said before, I would bank the runs every day of the week from a top-three player. Because that gives the rest of the order so much freedom. That gives you the option to be more aggressive than the other batters,” Finch explained.
