Rohit Sharma has been reminded, these last couple of weeks, that there is life beyond that astonishing pick up shot that he so routinely, and so easily, deposits into the stands at mid-wicket. Just as, eventually, the rude, unkempt purveyors of vile language will discover that there is a world beyond being an mtv Roadie! Unless of course you choose to limit yourself, like fundamendalists do, to a specific way of life!

It is a call that Rohit Sharma and others like Suresh Raina must take. Do they want to make T20 their universe, exist as a series of short, incandescent bursts, where failure is frequented as often as success? Or do they want to take their extraordinary ability towards other horizons? It is not as easy a decision as it seems for sooner or later they will be confronted by that enemy of ambition — the comfort factor. A sharp fast bowler who makes life uncomfortable can only come at you for 12 balls, or maybe even six (notice how T20 is slowly replacing the word ‘over’). There are always a couple of bowlers you can punish. And forty five minutes is about as long an innings will last.

It requires a different skill and as we have seen over the last two months, not everyone is possessed of it. But because you only need to exhibit it for a short while, it is likely to breed greater competition. Soon other hordes will come in, attracted ironically by players like Sharma and Raina, and they could easily slip into the world of the disposable celebrity that film and television knows so well.

... contd.