Distractions will happen, I try to stay away: Rohit on Jadeja-Manjrekar episode

Team Udayavani, Jul 7, 2019, 3:31 PM IST

Image for Representation

Leeds: Ravindra Jadeja reacted angrily to Sanjay Manjrekar’s ‘bits and pieces cricketer’ comment about him but Rohit Sharma has learnt to live with outside distractions, which he believes will remain a challenge for active players.

Skipper Virat Kohli has time and again stated that the team is not bothered by the outside talk and it’s more about what they believe in the change room.

However Jadeja’s tweet attack, where he had equated Manjrekar’s cricketing analysis with the number of matches he has played, shows how sensitive players are about criticism.

“See, that’s a challenge for the sportsmen,” Rohit, India’s man of the moment, said when asked about the Jadeja-Manjrekar episode.

“All this distraction will happen, but every individual is different and it depends on how he wants to think about that particular incident or situation,” the Indian vice-captain said.

Rohit, who has scored 647 runs in this World Cup, however feels that a bit of self insulation helps as it can keep a player in his own bubble.

“For me, I want to stay away from all that and enjoy the beautiful weather in England. I have my family here as well. Most of the time, that’s what I’m trying to do rather than thinking about all those talks going around,” he said.

He feels that each player should accept, that as long as they are playing the sport, it will be very difficult to avoid criticism.

But he does agree that constant talk about performances and expectations can get to one’s nerve.

In fact, Rohit feels that “a logistic manager” is required so that the team can at least have some peaceful time from the constant “we want the Cup” type yapping.

“Eventually our job is to come here, play good cricket and win the World Cup. We all know that. But constantly yapping in anyone’s ear is not right. So, I think for us as cricketers, it’s important for us to just stay completely put that away and focus on the job at hand,” the ‘Hit-Man’ said.