The 2019 ICC World Cup tournament will be fondly remembered for some of the greatest moments at the big stage where notable players from the respective teams came through their ranks at the highest level. Talking about India’s campaign, in particular, the Men in Blue gave absolutely everything from the start but couldn’t pull off the ropes against New Zealand in the semi-finals.
Nonetheless, India’s flamboyant opener Rohit Sharma was the consistent performer of the tournament. While the cricket fraternity expected Virat Kohli to switch gears, it was his deputy Rohit Sharma, who stole the spotlight in the marquee tournament. Rohit ended up as the highest run-scorer with 648 runs and five centuries, equaling Sachin Tendulkar’s record of most centuries hit a single edition of the World Cup tournament.
Rohit Sharma continued his batting prowess even after the World Cup and finished 2019 as the highest ODI run-scorer – 1490 runs. He was also named the ICC ODI Player of the Year. Despite giving everything for the team, he certainly deserves to be among the best. However, he didn’t make it to the widely respected list of Wisden’s top five performers of 2019.
Sunil Gavaskar lashes out at Wisden Almanack for excluding Rohit Sharma
Former India skipper Sunil Gavaskar launched a scathing attack at Wisden publication for his biased view of performances over the years and for giving precedence to performances in English conditions.
“Firstly, let’s get one thing clear: Rohit is not going to lose sleep over his exclusion. All that he and the others in the Indian team are concerned about is winning games for the country and getting those delightful thumps on the back and hair ruffled by teammates in appreciation of their effort. That’s the sweetest and only compliment that any cricketer wants. So, make no mistake it won’t matter to Rohit. He knows he gave his everything to the Indian team in their pursuit of the World Cup,” Gavaskar wrote.
Sunil Gavaskar mentioned that Rohit Sharma wouldn’t worry about this as he is part of the team that only aims to win games for India.