He has been talked about as the one who will eventually bat at Sachin Tendulkar’s No.4 position in the Indian Test team but on Tuesday, Rohit Sharma’s image was boosted by New Zealand allrounder Scot Styris, who termed his Deccan Chargers teammate the best Indian batsman after the legend.

Answering a pressure related question on the eve of the do-or-die match for Chargers, Styris said of Rohit: "In my opinion, Rohit Sharma is the best batsman in India outside of (Sachin) Tendulkar."

"There is no chance of him being out of form or under pressure. Rohit has been consistent over the two IPLs and I don’t think he can be bogged down by any situation. He is a phenomenal player... him being out of the Indian team is a mystery," Styris added.

The Kiwi appeared confident about the Chargers making it to the second stage of the tournament. "Trinidad & Tobago beating Somerset (on Monday) was the perfect result and a big confidence boost for us. They won easily too, so the net run-rate will be a factor at the end of the group stage. If we win the game, we are pretty much through to the next stage and take Trinidad (who top the group courtesy their positive run-rate) with us," he said.

"We’ve got everything to play for and there is a lot of motivation in the team. We know they are a good team and it will take hard work to beat them but we have the players who can do the job," Styris continued.

The Chargers are hungry, especially since they have not yet won a match at home. "We feel we have disappointed the fans by not winning on home ground. That’s really sad, but we are trying hard to change that. It’s now been eight-in-a-row (defeats at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium) and we are due for a change of luck," Styris said.