Mark Wood levels ‘Big Bat’ allegations against Rohit Sharma

England National Cricket Team express pacer Mark Wood has picked India National Cricket Team ODI skipper Rohit Sharma as the most difficult batter he has bowled to.

Mark Wood said that he always felt like the bat used by Rohit Sharma was bigger than other batters, and it kept getting wider when he was in form.

Yeah, in different stages of my career, I would say Rohit Sharma - Mark Wood

Rohit and Wood have come up against each other several times in international cricket across all three formats. In Test cricket, Wood has bowled 105 balls to Rohit Sharma and conceded 92 runs while dismissing him twice.

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In T20I cricket, Rohit scored 24 runs against Wood off 18 balls while getting out once, and in ODI cricket, the pacer dismissed India's skipper twice in 127 balls while conceding 113 runs.

Speaking on the ‘The Overlap Cricket’ YouTube channel, Wood highlighted how Rohit is a master of the pull shot despite getting out a lot of times while playing such a shot. He said:

"Yeah, in different stages of my career, I would say Rohit Sharma. Difficult because against the short ball, you feel like you, for myself, I’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.”

Unbelievable competitor - Mark Wood hails Virat Kohli

While talking about Virat Kohli, Wood said that he is an unbelievable competitor, but his weakness of outside off-stump could be exploited.

"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,” the English pacer said.

Just like Rohit, Wood has bowled to Kohli in all three formats. In Tests and T20Is, Kohli has scored 13 runs off 30 balls and 46 runs off 19 balls against Wood without being dismissed. In ODIs, the England pacer has managed to dismiss Kohli once in 55 balls while conceding 40 runs.

"I think you’ve got to hold your nerve - Mark Wood on bowling on Rishabh Pant

Mark Wood also admitted that he has found bowling to Rishabh Pant quite hard as he has dismissed the star wicketkeeper-batsman once while conceding 35 runs in international cricket. Mark Wood stated that Pant is quite unpredictable, which makes things difficult for the bowlers. He elaborated:

"I think you’ve got to hold your nerve. That’s basically what I would say. It’s because I think you kind of be so unpredictable that then that plays into his hands that he can just stand there and he waits for anything difficult. But if you have the, if you’re the same all the time, then he can, he’s got such a good eye, he sort of hits it where he wants.”

“So, I think you’ve got to have a mixture of hold your nerve to maybe the old ball that’s a bit unpredictable, whether it’s a slower ball or you might change up with a really high bouncer or a fast yorker like something slightly different."

Also Read: Gautam Gambhir handed “Definitely bad” verdict on his Test tenure: “Surprising and worrying”