“Rohit sir, apart from yourself, who is your favourite player in the current Indian team that beat South Africa in the T20 World Cup final at Barbados?”
This was perhaps the most innocent but pertinent question that was asked by a 10-year-old fan in Dallas, where Rohit Sharma spent his weekend to launch Crickingdom’s DFW cricket academy.
The cacophony and the energy in the Surti Leuva Patidar Samaj (SLPS) auditorium where this dialogue with Rohit took place on Sunday morning was palpable. Over 700 mega fans, from all over the USA, had thronged the room and were jumping on their chairs with phone cameras in their hand to get a peek of the World Cup-winning captain.
As Rohit walked into the room with four security guards protecting him from the emotional fans, he was greeted with vibrant beats of dhol and chants of “Mumbai chya Raja, akha India sa Raja”, signifying the value and importance of the role he has played in India’s cricketing ascendancy in recent times.
As always, Rohit, who is known for his relaxed, relatable and laid-back press conferences, tackled the young fan’s question with tact, diplomacy and humour, by saying that he loved all the 14 members in the squad that helped him and Team India lift the World Cup.
It was like a simple but effective single that he ran after nudging the ball towards a gap in the midwicket region in the middle overs.
The volume shot up a few dozen decibels when he was asked what was going through his mind when Kagiso Rabada was caught by Suryakumar Yadav off Hardik Pandya on the penultimate delivery of the match and the championship was pretty much in India’s bag.
In classic Rohit style, he nonchalantly said that he had “blanked out” and had nothing in his mind, and eventually emotions took over when he was seen celebrating by thumping the field.
The crowd went berserk when one of the questions referenced Rohit’s statement-making six and two boundaries off Pat Cummins in the fifth over in the decisive Super Eights games against Australia at Gros Islet.
Rohit merely grinned in response and that alone was as impactful as the courageous, power-packed, high-impact sixes that he strikes against the fastest pace bowlers in the world.
Upon being questioned about keeping pace with the evolution of the sport, he recalled his 17-year career and how has had to adapt both his batting and leadership mindset across the different formats.
Rohit alluded to the fact that he doesn’t plan too far ahead and hence isn’t thinking about the 2027 ODI World Cup, Champions Trophy 2025 nor the World Test Championships (WTC) –
accolades that are currently missing from his cabinet.
When quizzed by the hosts about the WTC finals in 2025, he categorically mentioned that “India has 10 Tests ahead of them, including the five away Tests down under and it needs to focus on preparing itself for those” and not worry about winning the mace.
As far as the audience’s excitement was concerned, Rohit came down the track to hit one out of the park, when he confirmed that he wasn’t hanging up his boots anytime soon and was looking forward to playing some good cricket and that we could expect to see him around in the next few years.
Rohit, who was in Texas to open a cricketing academy run by Crickingdom, a Singapore-based company where he is a shareholder, emphasised that he was excited about the growth prospects of the sport in the US.
He mentioned that over the last few weeks, he had the opportunity to tour different cricketing venues across the nation and was impressed with the pitches and cricketing facilities as well as the US team, which fared very well in the recently concluded T20 World Cup.
He did jocularly drop a wisecrack though that the current US team did have a lot of folks from India, which had the ethnic Indian-heavy audience cheering rather loudly.
Rohit shared that the new academies that Crickingdom was opening across the US would not just provide access to high-grade coaches and equipment but lay down a pathway for budding cricketers from the region to learn, play and perhaps take up the sport professionally in the future.
At the event, the mayor of the city felicitated him and honoured him with a plaque and certificate that stipulated that July 14 would celebrated as Rohit Sharma Day in Dallas.
The Indian skipper made his way back to London after the weekend trip to Dallas, where he was previously seen watching the Wimbledon semi-finals. He is expected to take some time off with his family there before returning to India to prepare for the upcoming tour to Sri Lanka, which starts on the July 27.