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Comebacks are never easy: Rohit Sharma

12:57PM Thu 14 Sep, 2017

Making a comeback after a lengthy injury lay-off is never easy, even if the player happens to be one of the most talented to have ever picked up a bat for India. Rohit Sharma injured his thigh muscle tendon during the final One-Day International against New Zealand last year and the injury forced him to miss the five-Test series against England and the subsequent ODI and T20I series.
After undergoing a thigh surgery in London, in November last year, he underwent rehabilitation at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru and was confident of making a comeback for the Australia Test series at home. But he wasn't picked for the four-match Test series and finally returned to action in the month of April playing for the Mumbai Indians in the IPL. Reflecting on the time spent on the sidelines, Rohit said: "Comebacks are not at all easy. After a major surgery, the difficult part is to conquer the inner demons. It's all in the mind. Only an individual can overcome his fears. My batting may look easy to the eye but trust me, it's not that easy.
When a player returns from injury, the first few days and matches are very crucial as there's always the lurking fear of the old injury rearing its head again. But Rohit was quite confident when he said that he doesn't worry about all these things when he steps out on the field for India. "The best part that happened to me was IPL started just after I completed my rehab", he said. "So while captaining Mumbai Indians and taking those on-field decisions, I couldn't think about what happens if I get injured. And when I was playing for India, my mind became blank while batting. There was no place for any negativity," said the 30-year-old, who scored consecutive hundreds in the recently concluded ODI series against Sri Lanka.
Whenever Sri Lanka unearthed a mystery spinner, India have generally struggled in the initial periods against them. If it was Ajantha Mendis back then, it was the turn of Akila Dananjaya, who bamboozled the Indians a few weeks back, bagging a six-fer in the second ODI. His scalps included Rohit's wicket - who was trapped lbw. After failing to decode Dananjaya in that match and pushed to a state where India were rescued by Bhuvneshwar and Dhoni's stand which won India the game, Rohit found a way to deal with the mystery spinner. "I realised that the speed of his googly was on the slower side while leg-breaks were faster. His off-break was easily negotiable. One thing we must know about these 'Mystery Spinners' -- they are bound to bowl loose deliveries and Dananjaya is no different."
With Australia touring India for a five-match ODI and three-match T20I series this month, Rohit is expected to play a huge role in shaping the fortunes of his team as he will be looked upon to provide a solid base at the top of the order. While Australia are expected to offer a tougher challenge as compared to Sri Lanka, Rohit believes in preparing for "conditions rather than the opposition".
"To each his own but my process of preparation is based on conditions not opposition. It won't be any different when we face Australia. In international cricket, the core group in most of the teams would remain same. So you know what's expected but they will operate in different conditions which is why the homework about conditions is the key. You need to know the shots you can play on particular pitches, how you want to plan your innings," Rohit said.
After being handed the additional responsibility of vice-captaincy for the Sri Lanka ODI series, Rohit felt it was "an honour" and added that he was enjoying the role. "It's an honour. My job is to help Virat [Kohli] in the field. He is the captain and whenever he looks up around, I should be around to complement him and help him as much as I could," he concluded.
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