India’s former captain and coach Rahul Dravid has praised Rohit Sharma for helping India grow in white-ball cricket, with the team now set to go into the upcoming ICC Men’s T20 World Cup as strong favourites.
Speaking at an event at the KSCA celebrating ‘The Rise of the Hitman’ by R. Kaushik, Dravid explained how India’s fearless style and Rohit’s leadership have taken the team to a new level in T20 cricket.
“India are playing T20 cricket at a different level than most teams. They have had an 80% success rate in the last few years, which is amazing in a format that has so many ups and downs. They clearly start as favourites and they will make it to the semi-finals but as I have learned to my bitter disappointment, it’s about the better team on the day. Anybody can play a good knock and upset you,” Dravid said.
Talking about the change in India’s white-ball approach, Dravid highlighted, “There was a feeling that we were slightly behind in white-ball cricket and needed to push the envelope a little more. Run rates were going up, risk-taking was increasing, and we needed to adapt to that reality.”
Dravid then highlighted Rohit’s role in this change. He said, “What was brilliant was that Rohit took the lead immediately. He took responsibility for setting the tempo himself, rather than asking others to do it. When your leader stands up and says, ‘I will do this, even if it comes at the cost of my average or my personal numbers,’ it becomes much easier to pass that message through the team.”
Rohit has retired from T20Is and Tests but is still actively playing ODIs. In T20Is, he scored 4,231 runs in 159 matches at an average of 32.05 and a strike rate of 140.89. In ODIs, he has smashed 11,577 runs in 282 matches at an average of 48.84.
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