Team India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin threw his weight behind skipper Rohit Sharma after the latter slammed the broadcaster Star Sports for vaguely throwing facts and statistics around without much context. Rohit snapped during the press conference after the third ODI against New Zealand on ‘first century in three years’ question, after he brought up his 30th ton in the 50-over format. The skipper mentioned that he played just 12 ODIs in those three years and the broadcaster should be a little responsible in showing those statistics and show right things.
Praising Rohit, Ashwin said that in the past too it has happened that a statistic or a fact may create a certain perception and can form uninformed opinions. Speaking about his YouTube channel, Ashwin said, “Rohit Sharma raised a beautiful topic about broadcasters, saying that they should be responsible when it comes to putting out facts to the common people. I have spoken a lot about this perception, how it can formulate into an opinion.
“If you keep on telling that there was a 3 year-gap, 4-year gap to the fans… fans, who are keen, and selectors and others who are part of the system, they know what’s the truth. But if you look at a commoner’s perspective, if you force such information on them, they would think ‘yeah, he hasn’t scored runs. So many new ones are scoring. Remove him’,” he added.
While talking about the topic, Ashwin recalled an incident from the 2019 World Cup when Rohit was in the middle of a sensational tournament and was scoring hundred for fun. But in one game he couldn’t get to 50 and Ashwin recaled that the talk on the show on the broadcast was ‘yet another failure for Rohit Sharma’.
“In the 2019 World Cup, he scored one hundred after another. He was the player of the Tournament in the ODI World Cup. In the last 10-15 years, there’s nothing to question Rohit Sharma’s performance in limited-overs cricket.
“In fact, he had scored 34 off 38. He took on the mantle, he started hitting the opposition bowlers. He reduced the pressure on his batting partners. Even when talking about that innings ‘yet another failure for Rohit Sharma’ was the talk in the show. It was surprising,” Ashwin added.
