Cricket Editorial IND v ENG 2024 Indian Cricket

Rohit Sharma leaves his imprint, on and off the field

February 26, 2024
Shamik Chakrabarty
Rohit Sharma’s captaincy led India to the series win versus England (Image: BCCI)

Rohit Sharma’s on-field communication with his team-mates could come with a statutory warning – for mature audiences only. But between his explicit words – pretty normal in on-field sporting lingo everywhere – there are some gems. “Aare kya hua hai tera, bhag kiyun nahi raha hai (what has happened to you, why aren’t you running)?” he would say, if he spotted someone not moving quickly. And then, there was his berating of Sarfaraz Khan during the third day’s play of the fourth Test in Ranchi. “E bhai, hero nahi banne ka [Brother, don’t try to be a hero],” the skipper would snap at the newcomer, when Sarfaraz decided to field at a close-in position without wearing a helmet.

Rohit will join in banter and engage in wisecracks even in tight situations. Such down-to-earth communication strikes a chord with his fellow players, who like their skipper and respect him.

As Sourav Ganguly had revealed a few months back, Rohit was a reluctant leader, who wasn’t up for India’s captaincy in all three formats. Following Virat Kohli’s decision to step down, however, there was a leadership void, and the BCCI had only one option. Ganguly, then BCCI president, had to convince Rohit. On Monday, after India defeated England in the fourth Test to clinch the five-match series, Rohit’s winning percentage as captain in the longer format jumped to 60. He has so far led in 15 Tests, winning nine and losing four.

And the series win against England will be cherished, for it has come under adverse circumstances, without several key players. A bunch of young guns stood up to make this happen. Without Rohit’s leadership, it wouldn’t have happened. England came to India carrying their Bazball hype. They won the first Test to put the hosts under serious pressure. But eventually, Roball triumphed.

 

An insider spoke about how Rohit told his team-mates not to brood over the result after India lost the first Test. He just told them to accept the fact that they lost to a special innings from Ollie Pope and move on. In public also, he exuded calm as he said: “Hard to pinpoint where it went wrong. With a lead of 190, we were in control but exceptional batting; probably one of the best I have seen in Indian conditions. Well played, Ollie Pope. I thought 230 was gettable, but it wasn’t to be.”

It’s not easy to get a defeat out of the system quickly and prepare for the next challenge. But the Indian team does it pretty well. They did it in South Africa in December-January, when after losing the first Test at Centurion, they bounced back spectacularly to win at Newlands inside two days. India have done it again, this time in a home series against a world-class side that revelled in its Bazball-fuelled swagger. Without strong leadership, such comebacks do not happen. As a batsman, Rohit has been a bit inconsistent in this series, with just one century and an important half-century to show for his efforts. But on the leadership scale, he is scoring 10 out of 10.

Down 1-0, India lost KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja for the second Test due to injuries. The team’s best batsman, Virat Kohli, had already made himself unavailable for the series due to personal reasons. Rohit didn’t have the services of a stalwart like Mohammed Shami. It is still not certain when Rishabh Pant will return to the Indian team fold. A few seniors like Jasprit Bumrah and Ravichandran Ashwin aside, Rohit had a group of callow youngsters to fall back on. The skipper trusted them, and the players reciprocated.

 

Take the case of Yashasvi Jaiswal, who has come of age in this series, scoring 655 runs, including two double-hundreds. There is Sarfaraz, who took to Test cricket like a duck to water. There is Dhruv Jurel. With KS Bharat being a failure as a batsman at this level, India needed a wicketkeeper who could add meat to lower-middle-order batting. Rohit put his faith in the 23-year-old, and Jurel repaid it by scoring a game-turning 90 in the first innings in Ranchi, and then staying right until the end when his team was under pressure in the second. The Player of the Match award in Ranchi was richly deserved. More importantly, India have a player for the future.

Resting Bumrah for the fourth Test was a tricky call. Going into a high-pressure game without the team’s best bowler when the series was still alive was fraught with risks. Then again, the fast bowler’s workload had to be taken into account. As captain, Rohit could have insisted that Bumrah played in Ranchi. But resting him was a collective decision, shutting out the external noise. And the skipper didn’t put his foot down. He handed over the new ball to Akash Deep instead, another debutant. Deep made a serious impression with three wickets in the opening session of the fourth Test.

A team gets such performances when the captain leads from the front, gives confidence to every player, and keeps the lines of communication open. Rohit ticks all the boxes, a reason why has had a positive impact on the whole group. “If you take a look at Indian cricket, everybody will be telling you that MS Dhoni is the best captain,” said Ashwin only a couple of months ago, speaking to former India batsman S Badrinath on the latter’s YouTube channel. “(But) Rohit Sharma is an outstanding person. He understands every single player in the team. He knows the likes and dislikes of each of us and has a great understanding. He puts in the effort to know each player personally.”

The series win against England was down to collective effort, but this has been a personal triumph for Rohit as well. This will help silence the naysayers.

 

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