Captain’s Class

IT WAS THE end of February 2020 and the world hadn’t yet come to terms with the full fury of the Covid-19 virus. Travel in India hadn’t stopped and masks weren’t a feature of our lives yet. It was India before Covid. Rohit Sharma could still walk around in his hotel in Bengaluru posing for photographs with fans and there was a degree of sanity all round. He wouldn’t have to sanitise hands following every handshake and a hug was the norm, and not an exception. In all this normal, however, there was something that wasn’t.

There was a degree of restlessness in Rohit, which I found out when we met for a conversation close to the end of his rehab at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) on February 25, 2020. Rohit had hurt his hamstring in New Zealand and was back in India midway into the tour, forced to miss the two Test matches he was so looking forward to playing. He was in red-hot form in the white-ball leg of the tour, and just a few months earlier, had scored five hundreds in the 2019 World Cup, the highest-ever by any batsman in Cup history. To get injured yet again when in such form was terribly unfortunate.

It was the first time I had seen Rohit since that fateful day in Manchester in July 2019, and it was expected that the conversation would turn to the World Cup at some point. “The five hundreds really don’t mean much anymore,” Rohit said in a very matter-of-fact manner. “Personally, it was a great achievement, but when you are playing a team sport, it is never about personal milestones. When I reached home after the World Cup and everyone was congratulating me for the hundreds, I can very honestly tell you I did not feel any elation. The real prize was in the England dressing room and it was difficult to accept that we had not made the final,” lamented Rohit.

Maybe, it is with this vision that he approached World Cup 2023 on home soil. He had captained India in the 2022 World T20 in Australia, and in all honesty, India put up a very ordinary show Down Under. Rohit himself did not do much and when England hammered India in the semi-final, a 10-wicket humiliation, the penny dropped. India was playing outdated cricket and something had to give.

The change in approach was visible when Rohit walked out to bat in the 2023 World Cup. Giving up on his tried and tested cautious approach at the top, this was a very different Rohit. He was trying to attack from the ball go and more often than not, he managed to get India off to a flier. The impact his approach had on the team was for all to see. With the captain playing selfless cricket, not caring for personal milestones, India looked like a team possessed, winning 10 straight matches on the trot. While they lost the final to Australia in Ahmedabad, the success of Rohit’s approach was for all to see.

If the work had stayed unfinished in Ahmedabad, it was completed in the Caribbean in June 2024. In the process, Rohit played the best T20 innings of his life when he smashed 90 of 40 balls against Australia and knocked the defending champions out of the competition. He was especially hard on Mitchell Starc, one of the best new ball bowlers of this era. Multiple sixes carted to different parts of the ground, it was as if Rohit was a man possessed that morning in the Caribbean. He followed up the Australia effort with yet another match-winning half-century against England in the semi-final and played a stellar hand in India winning the trophy.

Rohit, in June 2024, was the toast of India. Clearly, he could do no wrong and the World Cup win had galvanised the entire nation. The parade in Mumbai was extraordinary and Indian cricket looked stronger than ever. But then sport has its own way of levelling things out and that’s what happened with India as well. A shocking 0-3 Test series loss against New Zealand at home, and all of a sudden Rohit was in the eye of the storm. His batting form had turned patchy and it had started to tell on his captaincy. Things did not get better in Australia and when I finally met him in Sydney, it seemed I was speaking to someone lost in a world of negativity. Rohit wasn’t scoring in Australia and had opted out of the fifth and final Test in Sydney. The process leading to his omission left much to be desired, and all of a sudden, Rohit seemed to be losing control. He needed runs and he needed to believe in himself. Time was running out fast and for Rohit, the Champions Trophy was one of the most important competitions of his two-decade-long career.

It was the hundred against England at Cuttack that set him up. He had played his shots and all of them had come off in the course of that innings. It was the Rohit of old that had started to make an appearance. Against Bangladesh in Dubai, he looked scratchy yet again. Yes, he did score some runs but it wasn’t an innings of any real conviction. Pakistan was similar and the semi-final against Australia was no different. Rohit was giving India starts but wasn’t really looking convincing enough out in the middle. He just had one more game to leave his imprint on the tournament, and it was the final. New Zealand scored 251, which many believed was more than a challenging total in Dubai on a slow wicket. India needed to start well and the onus was back on Rohit. The captain needed to deliver in the match that mattered.

That’s when things started to happen for him. Some breathtaking shots at the start of the Indian innings and Rohit was off. Soon, the pull shot came out and Rohit fans started to find voice. Under pressure, the Indian captain had started to play an innings of real class. Fifty came up in no time and thanks to Rohit, India was bossing the chase. When he was finally dismissed for 76, India was halfway into the chase and it all seemed in control. When KL Rahul and Jadeja closed out the game, Rohit expectedly was delighted. He had won back-to-back ICC trophies and had achieved what MS Dhoni did in 2011 and 2013.

While Rohit is on record saying he isn’t retiring just yet, we aren’t sure if he will stay on to play in the 2027 World Cup. With very few 50- over contests lined up this year and with most bilateral series lacking context, the answer isn’t easy. And yet, it is with Rohit. If he believes he can serve India and contribute, he will stay on. If he isn’t sure of himself, he will quit. That’s him. Straightforward and simple. India’s captain isn’t one to hold on to his spot and he will only do so if he is convinced he can make a difference to the team. The Champions Trophy final is proof of his class and with back-to-back ICC trophy wins, he has also sealed his position as one of India’s best-ever leaders. For him and India, the Champions Trophy is in the Indian dressing room—Rohit can indeed hold it aloft as one of the best-ever white-ball players to do so.

Champions Trophy 2025cricketIndian cricketerRohit SharmaVirat Kohli