The 2023 World Cup is about to get underway later this year and incredibly, the number of ODI centuries Rohit has scored between the two tournaments is lesser than the number he scored in the 2019 event alone. Since January 2020, Rohit has scored just one century in ODI cricket. Incidentally, his strike-rate has also gone up in this period and the Indian captain explains that it has been a conscious decision of his to take more risks, which leads to him getting dismissed before he can score a century.

“I wanted to take more risks, which is why my numbers are slightly different now. My (ODI) strike-rate (during this period) has increased but the average has dipped a bit. This is exactly what our batting coach (Vikram Rathour) was telling me, ‘You have scored big runs because of the way you batted all these years and in the last few years, it (big runs) has not happened because you are taking risk’,” Rohit told PTI.

“My career strike-rate is around 90 (89.97) but in past couple of years, if you look at my scores and take the strike-rate into consideration, it has been around 105-110. So somewhere you had to compromise. It is not possible to have a 55 average and a 110 strike-rate.”

‘Want to try something else’

Rohit has gone past the 150-run mark in ODIs eight times, the most by any batter in the history of the format. And yet, the last time he had done so was in December 2019. The 35-year-old’s admission that his dip in scores is due to a conscious effort to score at a higher strike rate is also quite evident in the stats. Between the years 2007, when he made his debut, and 2019, Rohit’s strike rate went above 100 in a calendar year just once. In 2022, he had a strike rate of 114.22 in the eight matches he played while this year, he has maintained a strike rate of 106.09 in nine matches.

“It was purely my choice. My usual batting is still my patent, but I wanted to try something else. I am very happy with the result. Everyone wants to bat long and score those 150s and 170s. I still want to do that, but it is always nice to do something that you have not done. It only adds up in your list of batting abilities. Unless you do it, you won’t know it. I know if I play high risk shots, I will get out few times but I didn’t bother. This was communicated by me to the management that this is how I want to play,” he said.