Rohit Sharma is the best batsman after Virat Kohli

Its almost certain that there are two Rohit Sharmas in the Indian team mdash one who plays in whites with the red ball in the longer format and the other one who plays in coloured clothing with the white ball While the former is still trying to find a way to stay relevant the latter has started bossing over the limited overs formatAlso ReadRohit Sharma a terrific ODI player Sourav GangulyIndias Rohit Sharma plays a horizontal bat shot during his masterly 171 not out against Australia at the WACA ground in Perth yesterday PicGetty ImagesOn a serious note Indian cricket should thank the man who made Rohit open in ODIs for that has changed his career forever Hes one of those few Indian batsmen who are comfortable against pace and bounce In fact he relishes both because hes got the horizontal bat shots on both sides of the pitch off the backfoot and thats a rare quality I put it down to him growing up on the redsoiled pitches in Mumbai as these pitches offer more bounce than any other surface in the countryAlso ReadTwitter reacts with awe to Rohit Sharmas unbeaten 171Hes fast becoming the best Indian batsman after Virat Kohli in the 50over format He scored a century in the first game of 2015 and also ended up as the highest runscorer for India in the ODIs Once again hes started the new year with a century and if India are to do well in 2016 it is critical for him to continue doing well His knock in Perth yesterday will be remembered as one of his finest innings for not only did he dominate throughout the innings but he also carried his bat throughStarting wellThe biggest improvement in his batting over the last 12 months is his ability to start briskly There was a time when he would play 70 dot balls in the first 10 overs and also his strikerate would hover around 60 Now his dot ball percentage in the same period has come down to half and his strikerate has shot up to 90Its unfortunate that his last two ODI centuries have come in a losing cause His century against South Africa in Kanpur was the best century in that game as it was in Perth but on both occasions it turned out to be futile Anyway most cricket matches are set up by the batsmen and won by the bowlers especially on good batting surfaces Good batting cancels each other out on such surfaces and hence it becomes about the depth in the bowling departmentOnce again Indian bowling was found out on a good batting surface The lack of wickettaking bowlers is proving to be Indias bane So far whenever India needed a wicket Dhoni turned to Ashwin but yesterday he had an offdayAnd in this bowling lineup Ashwin cant afford to have one While the lack of resources is a known problem the handling of the existing resources by Dhoni left a lot to be desired Sarn took a couple of wickets at the start but was kept out of the attack for 29 overs after his initial burst Ashwin came to bowl only in the 18th overAnd Yadav wasnt given the new ball either Dhoni gave an impression that he was overly concerned about whats likely to happen in the last 10 overs and that proved detrimental in Perth Indias best chance of winning was to dislodge the BaileySmith partnership and once that didnt happen till the 41st over the match was done and dustedBrisbane 2nd ODI on Jan 15 presents India a good chance as the pitch will offer more to the bowlers and that seems the only way to restrict this strong Australian batting