Former India spinner Harbhajan Singh has come to aid of under-fire Indian captain Rohit Sharma and said that the cricketer is being unfairly criticized and hat the Mumbaikar is an amazing captain. This comes after several former cricketers including Sunil Gavaskar slammed Rohit for his leadership quality.
Gavaskar had slammed Rohit Sharma for his uninspiring captaincy in the final of the World Test Championship (WTC) against Australia, which India lost by a huge margin of 209 runs.
However, Harbhajan, who has seen a lot of Rohit in the Indian as well as the Mumbai Indians dressing room, reminded everyone about the kind of respect he commands from his peers.
“I find that people are going a bit overboard… the way Rohit has been criticised. Cricket is a team sport and one individual cannot take you from one place to other. Team India didn’t do well in WTC final, and yes, you talk about that performance and move on from there. But it is unfair to criticise Rohit alone, that he is not scoring runs, putting on weight, not captaining well. I think he is a brilliant leader,” Harbhajan Singh told PTI.
For Harbhajan, the need of the hour is to show faith in Rohit’s leadership ability.
“I have played with him (Rohit) and watched him closely. He commands a lot of respect not only in MI dressing room but also in the Indian dressing room. So I think it’s unfair to judge him on basis of recent results. He will come good and we need to show faith in him and we need to support him rather than pinpointing that you are not doing this or that,” he added.
Rohit Sharma is currently with the Indian contingent in West Indies for the two Tests and three ODIS series where he will lead the side. India will also play five T20Is on the tour, but Hardik Pandya will captain India.
Rohit Sharma Must Get Support From BCCI: Harbhajan Singh
Furthermore, Harbhajan Singh said that Rohit Sharma is continuing as India’s captain only because he is getting support from BCCI like his predecessors got.
The support of Jagmohan Dalmiya was crucial for Sourav Ganguly, and Mahendra Singh Dhoni always had N Srinivasan’s unwavering support during his time as captain of the BCCI. When Virat Kohli was in the driver’s seat, Vinod Rai, the previous chairman of the Committee of Administrators (CoA) and CAG, supported all of his judgements.
“If you have the support from BCCI, you can work freely. Not just MS Dhoni or Virat Kohli, if you go back a little further, a lot of captains have got support from BCCI presidents of that time. Rohit must be getting support from BCCI. I don’t know how much support he must be getting (though). Having that kind of support will help him take right kind of decision at the right time.
He will get that liberty if he has that support. Support must be there for Rohit like BCCI has given it to all its captains,” the Turbanator said.
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