‘Sehwag, Gambhir, Yuvraj… all missed out’: Rohit Sharma on captaining India | Cricket

Rohit Sharma’s India captaincy is a very peculiar case. Indian cricket has a history of blooding youngsters for the role. In fact, three of the most successful captains – Sourav Ganguly, MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli – were appointed captains at the age of 27, 26 and 27 respectively. But when Rohit took over the reins from Kohli, he was almost 34. Of course, he had captained India in the past, filling in for Kohli and was the most successful IPL captain with five titles with the Mumbai Indians, but full-time captaincy with India always eluded him. That is, until Kohli decided to step down from T20Is, Tests and was removed from his position in ODIs. His time was now.

As India approach the World Cup, a stern test awaits Rohit, who stands in the firing line. He is well aware of the fact that India haven’t won an ICC title for the last 10 years but at the same time, isn’t losing sleep over it. Although India are favourites to lift the World Cup crown given it’s being played on their home turn, the ever-so-candid Rohit doesn’t guarantee a thing.

“Yes, we have not won; it’s fine. I’m not a person who overthinks and puts myself in a tough place where I’m not able to make a decision. England started winning now; in 2019 they won the World Cup after so many years. It happens. Australia is the only consistent team who have won. After 2007, they won the ODI World Cup in 2015. They won the T20 World Cup in Dubai,” the India captain told The Indian Express.

“I don’t have an answer for it (Will India win the World Cup). How can I say that now? All I can hope is that the team is in a good space. Everybody is fit and fine. That’s all I can hope for. I cannot say beyond this. Space is such an important factor and it’s a very key thing now.”

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Rohit’s fairytale heading into the World Cup is well-documented. In 2011, he was not in the mix, and is the captain 12 years later. Even though his full-time captaincy tenure hasn’t quite produced the expected results – losses in last year’s Asia Cup and the T20 World Cup – his unit is peaking at the right time. With a commanding win in the Asia Cup, Rohit’s India is ticking all the boxes. And that gives 1.4 billion people hope. Hope that even though captaincy came late to Rohit, he might just be the man to end India’s decade-long ICC jinx.

“Obviously, you want to be at your peak for this, say when you are 26-27. But you cannot always get what you want. You are talking about the Indian captaincy and there have been stalwarts in the Indian team. Many more players deserved to be the captain of the team. I had to wait for my turn and that’s absolutely fair enough. The guys before, Virat was before me, so was MS (Dhoni),” he said.

“Just look at the names that are missed out: Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag … these are all stalwarts of Indian cricket. Not to forget Yuvraj Singh. He never captained India. Yuvraj has been such a match winner for India, he should have been the captain at some stage but he didn’t get it. That’s life. I got it now and I am grateful for it. I would rather have it when I know how to captain a team, when I know what is required and all. Rather than when I don’t know the ABCD of captaincy. So in that respect, this is good.”