Harbhajan Singh backs Rohit Sharma’s captaincy amid criticism

The former legendary Indian spinner, Harbhajan Singh, has come in support of the current Indian skipper, Rohit Sharma. The veteran believes that Rohit is a great leader and people are being overly overboard critical about his captaincy. Notably, India lost their second consecutive World Test Championship (WTC) Final against Australia by 209 runs.

In the same vein, Singh cited examples of former India captains Sourav Ganguly, MS Dhoni, and Virat Kohli, as to how they got the backing of former Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) top bosses. In the same way, Rohit Sharma too needs backing from BCCI with all the decisions the Mumbai-based opener takes in the team’s interest.

“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 another,” was quoted as saying by India Today.

“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,” the Turbanator concluded.

He commands a lot of respect not only in the MI dressing room but also in the Indian dressing room: Singh

Meanwhile, since Rohit Sharma took over as Team India’s captain, the national side have played 10 Tests. Sharma has captained India in Seven Tests. Out of them, the team has won four matches while losing two games. Notably, the Indian opener and skipper missed out on playing three Tests due to injury concerns.

While speaking of his achievements in the Indian Premier League (IPL), Rohit has led Mumbai Indians (MI) to glory on several occasions which speaks volumes about his leadership abilities. Citing the same, Singh iterated the fact that Rohit Sharma holds strong command in both the national and premier league dressing rooms.

“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 the 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,” concluded the Ex-Indian cricketer.