Rohit Sharma urges his players not to play conservatively in T20s

Rohit Sharma has been on a roll since being appointed as India’s new T20I captain. The Men in Blue have won 12 matches on the trot – equalling both Afghanistan and Romania for the highest record in men’s T20I history. The most recent win arrived in a six-wicket humbling of Sri Lanka which helped the hosts to complete yet another whitewash.

New captain Rohit Sharma is aware that the Indian team’s approach to T20 cricket before this was quite conservative. However, that philosophy is no longer being followed in the dressing room and the youngsters have been asked to go out and express themselves without being afraid of their spots in the team.

“We do understand at times that we’ve held back but it’s important to tell the guys that you don’t have to worry about your positions in the team. We want to fill whatever gaps we do have. We just want to move forward,” Rohit said at the presentation ceremony after India defeated Sri Lanka by six wickets in the final T20I.

The new management including head coach Rahul Dravid and Rohit Sharma will have a headache picking a final XI given that there have been so many impressive performances. However, it’s a headache that they won’t be complaining about as India’s quality across the starting XI and bench inspires plenty of confidence.

“It’s going to be a big challenge but it’s nice to have guys in form rather than not in form. It’s a factor of everything that comes together. We played together and we played very well. A lot of positives from this series [against Sri Lanka].”

Rohit Sharma has given playing time to all the players in the squad over the last nine white ball matches which includes six T20Is and three ODIs and the opening batter mentioned that it was something that they’ve always kept in mind for the collective betterment of the entire unit.

“This is something we’ve kept in mind – good to give opportunities to few of those guys. If the guys take the opportunity the way some of these guys have taken, you can move from strength to strength,” concluded Rohit Sharma who has a win percentage of 85.71 as T20I captain.