By Kwesi Mugisa
SportsMax– Mumbai Indians batsman Rohit Sharma believes the best way to get Windies players to perform is to leave them to their own devices on the pitch.
On Tuesday, Sharma stood at the other end while young Windies opener Evin Lewis blasted a 42-ball 65, before himself making 94 from 52 balls. The two formed the base of a massive 213-6, which sealed the first win of the campaign against Royal Challengers Bangalore for the defending champions, who lost their previous three matches.
When asked what advice he had offered the young West Indian, while standing at the other end, the team captain Sharma had an interesting take on the situation.
“You don’t guide West Indian players at all. You have to let them be themselves,” Sharma told members of the media following the match.
“If you try and talk to them and tell them, this is how you should defend, this is how you should play, opposite, nothing will fall in place. It is better that we let them to their thing and that’s how you get the best out of them,” he added.
Sharma pointed out that he had garnered the valuable piece of intelligence from dealing with Lewis’ teammate Kieron Pollard.
“One thing I have learned from handling Pollard. I don’t tell him anything, so I guess it will be the same with Lewis because naturally, he is the striker of the ball, so you should not complicate things with him and allow him the way he wants to play, sometimes it will come off, sometimes it won’t. The day it comes off, he will win you games on his own. For such kind of players, you don’t talk much.”
