Former Indian pacer Ashish Nehra praised skipper Rohit Sharma for his stunning knock against Pakistan in the ICC ODI World Cup 2023 on Saturday. After Babar Azam’s Pakistan collapsed for a meager score of 191, Rohit played a blistering knock to seal Team India’s comfortable victory over the 1992 world champions at the Narendra Modi Stadium. The Right-handed opener smashed 86 off 63 balls and powered India to chase down the target of 192 in just 30.3 overs.

Nehra predicted that Rohit would be unhappy for not hitting a century in the low-scoring match between the arch-rivals. Rohit has the most tons (7) in the history of the ODI World Cup. When you have just 191 runs on the board, if you don’t strike in the first 5-7 overs, it will always be difficult. And the way the Indian batters started in the first two overs, it just pushed Pakistan on the back foot, Nehra admitted.

Rohit will be disappointed not to get to a hundred, but that’s the kind of positive batting you expect from him once he is set. He didn’t give them any chance to even think of having an opportunity to come back, Nehra added.

Didn’t understand Pakistan’s ploy of bowling short to Rohit. Yes, he has gotten out playing the pull shot on odd occasions, but it doesn’t trouble him largely. He was never going to get troubled on this wicket. When he is in such form, it’s very rare that he would mistime a pull shot, Nehra concluded.