English pacer Mark Wood has revealed why he always found Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli difficult batters to bowl to. Rohit and Kohli have retired from T20Is and Tests, currently active only in the 50-over format.
Wood felt Rohit’s bat “just kept getting wider”, highlighting the batter’s potency against short-pitched deliveries. He was also Wood’s pick for the toughest batter he has bowled to across several phases of his career.
“Yeah, in different stages of my career, I would say Rohit Sharma. Difficult because against the short ball, you feel like you’ve got a chance of getting him out, but also if he’s on that day, he smokes it. So, he was difficult. I always felt like his bat was big, just kept getting wider,” shared Wood while speaking on the Overlap Podcast.
Wood remarked that Kohli’s on-field ferocity was what made him such a challenging batter to play against.
“Kohli, obviously. Unbelievable competitor, someone that I felt you have this weakness of fourth, fifth stump, drag him in. We seem to never miss him when I bowl him there. So, that was difficult,” he added.
The 35-year-old also shed light on the the attributes that make Pant a challenging batter. Wood emphasised on the need to have variations to deal with a dynamic batter such as Pant.
“I think you’ve got to hold your nerve. That’s basically what I would say. He can be so unpredictable that it plays into his hands. If you’re the same all the time, he’s got such a good eye, he hits it where he wants. You need to mix it up with a slower ball, a high bouncer, or a fast yorker,” noted Wood.
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