Remember those parent teacher meetings in school? Especially the rendezvous with the Math teacher?
Math Teacher(MT): Your child has the potential to score very well in this subject.
Parent(P): Then why is he not doing so?
MT: He makes too many silly mistakes.
Parent gives a stern look at the lackadaisical child sitting in the corner of the room. Such is the curious case of Rohit Sharma.
Now Rohit Sharma is considered a cricketing prodigy by many. Why? He scores in one game of 50 overs what on an average an entire team does. He has two double hundreds in the ODI format and a century on Test debut. But like the Math teacher talks about fulfilling his potential, Rohit Sharma is yet to do justice to his talent.
Now let’s talk about the Math teacher.
Hard to please, the expectations of the cricket loving public of India are nothing short of the ever demanding nexus of the parent and teacher. Dropped from the third test(remember he did not play the first), Rohit Sharma must sometimes be wondering what should he do next to prove himself. The axe falls on his neck at the drop of a hat, but probably his lesser talented peers (read Shikhar Dhawan) are given a longer rope. One probably wonders if his God given talent is in fact a bane or a boon?
A failure in two innings does not amount to not doing justice to talent. Virat Kohli flopped entirely in all the tests in England, nobody asked this question then. Why now when Rohit fails in one? He has probably been the soft target or more lovingly the ‘ginny pig’.
At this point I am reminded of little Ishan, the protagonist in “Taare Zammen Par”. Aamir Khan being his teacher explains to his parents that he is special and in fact needs special treatment instead of constant reprimanding. He is like a diamond who needs polishing.
We should probably listen to Aamir Khan this time. Be a little less demanding parents and teachers alike. Let the flower called Rohit Sharma bloom and let him take his time. His fragrance will mesmerism, that is for sure.
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