A confident leader – Rohit Sharma and his traits as a captain
Rohit Sharma’s captaincy is often talked about but remains to be highly underrated. His greatness certainly lies in his batting but so does in his captaincy. Talent is a term often associated with him. And little needs to be told about how much of that he has in him. While the cricketing world is often awed by what Rohit does with his bat, his captaincy is not given as much admiration it deserves.
The fortunes of Mumbai Indians have turned upside down ever since 2013. What brought this change? Or rather who? It all began when Rohit overtook the captaincy of the Reliance-owned franchise from one of the finest leaders Ricky Ponting. In 2013, Rohit led his team to their first-ever IPL title in what was just the start of a great campaign.
Calmness and belief
Rohit has a certain degree of calmness in his style. He is not the go-getter Virat Kohli or a fierce Ricky Ponting. He has an element of MS Dhoni: a relaxed attitude and holds his nerves in pressure situations. An intense and serious thinker of the game, Rohit is tactically smart and he knows how to make the use of his resources: something that could well be seen in the way he has exploited the best out of his players in the Mumbai Indians.
He also has the knack of backing the players and building a team. But at the same time, he gives them the freedom to express without pressurizing them. It was the 2015 season of IPL that MI won their second title and when two of India’s current stars- Hardik Pandya and Jasprit Bumrah- developed immensely under his captaincy. Pandya became the answer to India’s all-rounder question with his hard-hitting abilities whereas Bumrah marked himself as one of the best bowlers in the world, with his ability in the death overs and subtle variations.
In the following years, the likes of Mayank Markande and Rahul Chahar have also blossomed under him and have got a look-in in the Indian T20I team. Leading MI to two triumphs in 2017 and 2019, Rohit Sharma stands as the only IPL captain with four titles. His 60 wins out of the 104 games that he has captained translate to a win percentage as high as 57.69 and he is only behind MS Dhoni (104 wins and 69 losses in 174 matches i.e. 59.77%) in this aspect.
Leading India to glory
At the international level as well, Rohit has led India to victories in the Nidahas trophy where a glaring example of his captaincy prowess was his belief in Dinesh Karthik’s ability to finish games. Rohit kept him back in the final against Bangladesh that India went onto win due to an incredible cameo from Karthik (29 off 8). In the same year, Rohit also led India in a victorious campaign in Asia Cup despite the absence of the likes of Virat Kohli and Hardik Pandya.
In 10 ODIs as an Indian captain, Rohit has won 8 and lost 2 whereas in 19 T20Is, he has won as many as 15 and lost only 4. However, it is not just about the numbers but also about the qualities of Rohit Sharma as a leader that indeed establishes him as a great captain.
