Notes on Day 3

From England India at the Oval

Rohit Sharma and the middle innings 

So I had this theory that Shane Watson and Rohit Sharma are alike. Both are makeshift openers who like to hit boundaries. They went to the top of the card because there wasn’t another obvious spot, and they made it work through natural talent. 

Both grew up being three and four, but at the professional level were moved down to five and six. 

When opening neither have had trouble with the new ball. Which is the important bit. They seem to enjoy it actually. Hard ball, field up, boundary options, fun times. But in 52 innings opening Watson made two hundreds. He was incredible at the start but found the next phase tricky. 

Rohit - outside Asia - has been similar. I think partly it’s because of the extra pace bowler. It’s not that he has a weakness against pace; it’s that the architecture is different. In India you see off pace and build during spin. But in Australia and England - from small samples - he’s looked a bit lost in the middle part. 

Today that d…