T20 World Cup 2021: "Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul did a good job of limiting the dot balls in the powerplay against Afghanistan" - Brad Hogg

Former Australian spinner Brad Hogg has highlighted how openers have had a mixed T20 World Cup so far in tricky conditions. He explained that the key to survival in such conditions is to try to stay longer at the crease, limit the dot balls and run hard to amass extra runs.

Hogg cited the example of the opening pair of KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma as examples of how to limit dot balls in the powerplay which enabled them to accelerate without any pressure against Afghanistan. The pair stitched a 140-run stand, which is India's highest in T20 World Cup history.

Speaking on his YouTube channel, Hogg said:

"Rohit and Rahul limited the dot balls in the powerplay overs which put extra pressure on Afghanistan bowlers. All of a sudden, there were a lot more loose balls being bowled."

Both opening batters recorded fifties in the contest, which gave the others down the order a solid platform to build the innings. They showed their class once again while chasing against Scotland, where they put on 70 runs in just five overs.

They were able to take that extra risk against Rashid Khan: Hogg

Rashid Khan, who is having a prolific World Cup so far, was rendered helpless against a fully-settled pair of KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma. The leg-spinner returned figures of 0-36 off his four overs.

Hogg noted that India were able to take the risk against Rashid Khan since they had wickets in hand. He added that the Men In Blue wouldn't have played freely against Rashid Khan had they lost a couple of early wickets.

Hogg added:

"Because they did not lose any wickets early on, at the back end when Afghanistan brought on Rashid Khan, they were able to take that extra risk against Rashid Khan, something that they would not have done had they lost early wickets. So, he went for 0-36 rather than his standard 20-24 runs."

Team India have finally found some stability after a rocky start to the tournament. The top order was far from its best during their contests against Pakistan and New Zealand.