Rohit Sharma is a man with an uncluttered plan. Perhaps, this was his magic recipe to win five IPL titles as Mumbai Indians captain. He has never been big on having multiple theories.
Rohit Sharma has also inspired the team in Virat Kohli’s absence to memorable triumphs in Asia Cup and Nidahas Trophy, besides leading Mumbai Indians to an unprecedented five IPL titles. Rohit Sharma, 34, has led India 10 times in ODIs and led them to victories on eight occasions. In T20Is, he has captained them 19 times, of which they have won 15 and lost four.
Rohit Sharma: India Has Been Brilliant In T20Is, And Only Regret Is Not Winning An ICC Trophy
India’s new T20 captain Rohit Sharma doesn’t foresee any change in Virat Kohli’s role as a batter in the new set-up and expects his predecessor to continue dishing out impactful performances. Virat Kohli has relinquished his T20 captaincy and from Wednesday’s opening T20 International against New Zealand, Rohit Sharma will be the full-time skipper in the shortest format going into next year’s World Cup.
And he doesn’t mind conceding: “India has been brilliant in this particular format. It’s just that we haven’t won the ICC tournament. Of course, there are little holes that we need to fill up, and that will be the biggest challenge as a team,” Rohit said on the eve of the first T20I against New Zealand in Jaipur.
For Rohit Sharma, assigning definite roles to his players is the key which goes down to domestic and IPL matches too. In the recent T20I World Cup, it came to the fore that most batters are comfortable batting in the top four positions, and there was hardly any option for the late middle-order to flourish.
“Our boys play Syed Mushtaq Ali and IPL and they play differently for their franchisees and states. When they come here, they have different roles. We strictly want to assign the role which they do here matters. For that, it can take a few games or it can take a while,” he asserted.
Rohit Sharma: India Need To Create Own Template And Get It Right
India’s brand of T20 cricket has been questioned by experts. The overtly conservative approach looked outdated in front of their competitors. But newly-appointed skipper for the shortest format, Rohit Sharma insisted that it was more important to make a brand of their own than tailing other teams.
“We just need to set the template right and we have got some time to do that. I am not going to say that we are going to follow a certain team’s template. We just have to create our own template and what is best for our team,” he claimed.
“We are starting afresh after the T20 World Cup. We want to absorb and we have set some ideas and thoughts for this particular series. Let’s see how it pans out and we will take it from there,” Rohit added.
Speaking about the template that he will look to set in T20Is, Rohit Sharma spoke about the need to define specific roles for players in T20Is. Sharma said that he and new coach Rahul Dravid will stress on helping the youngsters hone specific skills by playing similar roles in international, domestic, and franchise cricket.