Within just 5 months of being India's full-time captain, Rohit has surpassed Morgan and Williamson to register the most wins as a T20 captain for the matches happening at home. Winning the total 16 T20 at home as captain, he has had the highest wins for any captain at home. He also surpassed MS Dhoni who had 13 and Virat Kohli who had 14 victories respectively in India. Also with the Srilanka series win, India registered its 12th consecutive T20I victory, which is the highest for any test playing nation.
If looking at his form from 2008 to 2013, someone would have said that Rohit will lead India in future in all three formats, the person would've been termed as a fool. But fooling everyone like a boss, he did it. At this point, he is the captain to win IPL the most number of times, and within 5 months, he has become the captain to have the most international wins at home. He has a staggering record of captaincy both at the IPL and international levels.
But what makes Rohit an amazing captain? The answer is simple. Rohit keeps things simple and allows the players to do whatever they want to. His game awareness is great and his field placements are spot on. In addition to this, he uses the bowlers optimally. His rotation of the bowlers does the trick for his team. In pressure situations or death particularly, his calm head taking the right decision to choose the bowler gives the team the required output.
Speaking about the international level, Virat's team and Rohit's team had a major difference. Virat's team didn't have any other captain who could guide him to take decisions, while Rohit's team has Virat Kohli who guides him to make crucial decisions. The so-called claims "rift" by the media sources were deterred right in the first match of the West Indies series when one saw Virat helping Rohit set the field, and also suggest he take crucial DRS decisions.
And just like Virat, Rohit believes in sacrificing his position at times to provide a youngster with a new opportunity. Virat has done it in numerous instances for many players, the latest of which have been when he let Shreyas and Surya bat at his position at which he dominated the world. Similarly, in the last match of the Sri Lanka series, Rohit demoted himself to make Ruturaj Gaikwad open the innings. He could have dented Ishan Kishan and opened alongside Ruturaj, but he did the opposite. This marks the difference between a captain and a leader. Rohit, Virat are leaders, and KL is a captain.
Rohit has believed in giving opportunities to others. He likes to back the players. He made it big because he was backed. Despite having inconsistent performances, MS Dhoni allowed him to open the innings in the 2012 England series, which led to the resurrection of Rohit Sharma. And he continues the legacy of backing players in both, the IPL as well as domestic cricket. All these qualities make him a sensible choice as a skipper in limited over for Men in Blue.
There has to be some kind of potential in a player when he is made the captain of the team consisting of Sachin Tendulkar and Ricky Ponting. Fortunately for India, this potential was recognised by Sachin, who sacrificed captaincy and handed it over to Rohit. And Rohit proved god's decision right by winning Mumbai Indians the first (and Sachin Tendulkar the only) IPL title. Since then he has done wonders. An average winning percentage of 70 % in IPL, 82% in ODI, and 90 % in T20I show what a leader Hitman is. Although he has never captained for red-ball cricket, it would be interesting to see how he leads the Men in Blue in tests. Seeing his qualities, one can expect he excels there too.
Authored By:- Ashwin Jangam ( Cricket Analyst, Host and Entertainer)
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