Rohit Sharma, the Mumbai Indians captains, praised his former coach Ricky Ponting for his positive influence. Sharma said the Australian was always there to him out and backed him to the hilt. Ponting gave confidence to Rohit in the nascent stages of Mumbai Indians’ captaincy and that helped the latter in going a long way. The former Australian skipper was leading the franchise in the 2013 season.
However, Ponting was not able to deliver the goods in the first six matches. Subsequently, the talisman decided to step away from the captaincy shoes and Rohit was asked to fill them up. It was a huge responsibility for Rohit and he was able to grab it with both hands. In fact, Rohit led the team to glory in the 2013 season, which was the maiden trophy for Mumbai Indians.
Ricky Ponting has all the experience.
Since then, the club and Rohit Sharma haven’t looked back. Mumbai Indians is now the most successful IPL team with four IPL titles under their belt. They have made their way to five finals and thus have an 80% success rate. There is no doubt that a lot of credit goes to Rohit Sharma, who has led the team from the front.
Rohit needed an arm around his shoulder in the early phase of his captaincy career and Ricky Ponting gave him that confidence that he can deliver the goods.
Ricky Ponting is known to bring the best out of his players.
Ponting called me up and he said – ‘We want you to take the team ahead from here and I know you’ve got solid game sense and all that, and you will do a good job’. So it started from there,” Rohit Sharma told Ashwin in Instagram live chat.
“He became player-cum-coach after that and he was always there to help me. He always stood in front (to take responsibility) if there was any issue or whatever,” Rohit Sharma added.
Rohit Sharma has led Mumbai Indians in 104 matches in which the team has won 60 games and lost 42 whereas two have been tied. Ergo, Rohit has a win percentage of 58.65 in the IPL. The flamboyant batsman has shown that he is calm under pressure and he backs himself to take the tough decisions on the field. Rohit has been successful in getting the best out of his players.