NEW DELHI: England pacer Mark Wood has revealed the three toughest Indian batters he has bowled to in his career, naming Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and Rishabh Pant.
Speaking on The Overlap Cricket Podcast, Wood admitted that Rohit's ability to dominate the short ball, Kohli's fierce competitiveness around the fourth-fifth stump line, and Pant's unpredictability made them particularly challenging opponents.
"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,” Wood said, speaking on The Overlap Cricket podcast.
"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," he added.
And the third batter he picked was Rishabh Pant. "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," he pointed out.
