Asia Cup 2018: Rohit Sharma Lauds BCCI on Hiring Left-Arm Throwdown Specialist

India skipper Rohit Sharma, on Monday (September 17), praised Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) decision to hire Sri Lankan Nuwan Seneviratne as a throwdown specialist. Ahead of the Asia Cup 2018 opener against Hong Kong, the opener also said that the move would pay dividends in the coming days.

Besides, Indian batsman especially the top-order struggle against left-arm pacers is well-documented fact in the game. Whether it is Trent Boult causing problems aplenty in India, Mohammad Amir blew away the top-order in the ICC Champions Trophy 2017 final or Jason Behrendorff rattling up the Men in Blue in a Twenty20 International, there are plenty of examples to prove it.

Even in their last assignment in England, they gave away 12 wickets to the 20-year-old Sam Curran. In the ODI series in England too, India were most troubled by their left-arm bowlers. So much so, David Willey, who picked five wickets and recorded second best economy rate for the series.

To counter the problem, India took several measures. They invited Aniket Chaudhary and even Arjun Tendulkar for their net session, but nothing paid off. And with India set to play Pakistan again and then face Mitchell Starc during the tour of Australia later this year, the BCCI hired a left-arm throwdown specialist from Sri Lanka.

Seneviratne is a 38-year-old from Colombo, who has two First-class matches to his name for Colombo Cricket Club (CCC). More importantly, he’s left-handed and creates angles in the nets that the Indian batsmen were previously only used to in match situations. And the move has impressed Rohit Sharma.

“We saw him in Sri Lanka when we were playing there. Of course, we have two right-handers who do throwdowns for us. So we wanted to bring in that change because left-armers are important,” Rohit told reporters.

He would know the trouble of facing left-armers. Most recently struggling against Pakistan’s Amir who he will go up against on September 19 in the marquee clash of the Asia Cup 2018.

Raghuveer, who is with the team since 2011, and batting coach Sanjay Bangar currently do the job in the nets. However, both of them are right-handers.

Asia Cup 2018: Rohit further praised BCCI for their decision.

“Looking at the future, we’re going to be playing in Australia, and they have quite a few left-arm bowlers. In Asia Cup as well we’re going to be encountered with left-armers. I think it was a great move by BCCI to bring him in,” Rohit said.

On Monday, Seneviratne got into the act as India gears up to take on a Pakistan line-up full of excellent left-arm fast bowlers on Wednesday.

“He seems to be quite accurate with whatever he does. He’s pretty good at his job, and it is a great addition to the team,” Rohit concluded.

India under Rohit Sharma will open their Asia Cup 2018 campaign against Hong Kong on September 18. They will face arch-rivals Pakistan on September 19.