Former Indian wicketkeeper-batsman Deep Dasgupta believes Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma will continue to face the challenge of not being ready, as they are only playing one format of the game and thus are playing competitive cricket sporadically.
The veteran duo last played in the ODI series against the West Indies. While Rohit scored 225 runs in three games against the Windies, Kohli scored 168 runs in as many matches.
Rohit was dismissed for a duck in the series opener against New Zealand, whereas Kohli is batting unbeaten on 29 in the run chase of 186.
Deep Dasgupta said on his YouTube Channel, “That is going to remain a challenge whenever they come for an ODI series. There are chances that they will come after gaps of one and a half or two months. It’s been two years since they retired from Tests. The first year or so is the toughest because you don’t know how to schedule and stay at peak performance. When they were playing all formats, they knew they had to be at peak performance all the time. But in such situations, you need to know when to hit the peak because it will be difficult to sustain that in practice.”
“They’ve figured out their systems, and chances are that Virat and Rohit have different systems. I’m quite sure by now they know how to be spot on from the first game,” he added.
The former Bengal cricketer believes the New Zealand bowlers will target Rohit Sharma with short deliveries in the first ODI.
He concluded, “The ground dimensions are against Rohit in the first game because of the square boundaries. New Zealand have quick bowlers as well, and it’s obvious that they won’t bowl too full when there are big square boundaries. It will be a good fight between the New Zealand quicks and Rohit.”
