Former Indian cricketer and batting coach Sanjay Bangar said that the Indian batters should look to score runs between mid-off and mid-on or mid-wicket areas and keep a perfect head position while facing left-arm seam bowlers.
Left-arm bowlers have been troubling Indian batters, notably at the ICC events for a decade or so. Be it Mitchell Starc and Mitchell Johnson of Australia during the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 semi-finals, Mohammed Amir of Pakistan during the ICC Champions Trophy 2017 final, Trent Boult of New Zealand in the ICC CWC 2019 semi-final or Shaheen Afridi of Pakistan in Group Stage match of ICC T20 World Cup 2021, Indian bowlers have given away wickets to these bowlers without much resistance, especially in the powerplay stage of the innings.
Taking on Star Sports show “Follow The Blues”, former Indian cricketer Sanjay Bangar provided insights on Rohit facing left-arm pace in the nets while preparing for the key battle against Shaheen Afridi on September 2, 2023.
"One does not get too many chances to play from that angle because most of the teams have a right-hand attack and opening bowling pairs. However, the angle is very crucial keeping in mind where you want to play as a batsman because when a left-arm bowler bowls from close to the stumps and brings it inwards towards the right-hand batsman," Bangar said.
"One should target the bowler, for that, the head position needs to be perfect and one needs to set himself and think of scoring runs between mid-off and mid-on/mid-wicket areas. The batsman will get a chance to get into a better position against that angle bowling and one needs to learn and know where runs can be scored against angle bowling and on what aspects the batsman needs to focus more. So, during practice, Rohit would have been focusing on these areas," he added.
The Asia Cup to be held in Pakistan and Sri Lanka will start from August 30 with the match between arch-rivals India and Pakistan on September 2 at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium in Kandy set to serve as the Men in Blue's campaign opener.
