World Cup 2023: Rohit Sharma played a captain’s knock under pressure, says Michael Vaughan

Former England captain Michael Vaughan lauded Rohit Sharma for playing a captain’s knock under pressure against England at the Ekana Cricket Stadium, Lucknow on Sunday. Rohit scored a match-winning knock of 87 runs against the defending champions on a tricky pitch.

In fact, India was put under the pump by England pacers as the hosts lost three early wickets of Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, and Shreyas Iyer to find themselves in trouble at 40-3. However, Rohit Sharma was able to steady the ship with a 91-run alliance with KL Rahul, who contributed 39.

Rohit scored 10 fours and three maximums as he showed all the gumption in his batting. In fact, Rohit has been playing aggressively in the ongoing World Cup but he played according to the match situation after India lost early wickets.

Speaking on Cricbuzz, Vaughan said, “The captain set the foundation. India were in a precarious position at 30 for 3 and were under pressure. He got together with KL Rahul. Rohit’s mindset is to be aggressive, be positive, try and hit the boundaries, but he realized that he had to hang in there and play at a Test match tempo with Rahul.”

Vaughan lauded Rohit for curbing his natural attacking game as the team was under pressure. Rohit was dismissed while trying to play a big shot against Adil Rashid but holed out to Liam Livingstone at cow corner.

Vaughan added, “He always had that at the back of his mind that he could find the boundary. He played a beautiful shot off Liam Livingstone, who just spun one earlier. So, he always had that boundary option in him but it was a wonderful captain’s knock because his team was under a little bit of pressure.”

Rohit Sharma has scored 398 runs in six matches at an average of 66.33 and a strike rate of 119.16 in the ongoing World Cup 2023 and he will look to carry on the good show.

India will next take on Sri Lanka at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai on Thursday.