Rohit Sharma‘s tenure as full-time captain for the Indian cricket team has been a rollercoaster ride thus far. Amidst high hopes and expectations, India’s quest to end its decade-long ICC trophy drought remained unfulfilled under his leadership. While the 36-year-old has successfully guided the team to victories in bilateral home series, their performance in major tournaments has been a cause for concern.
Rohit took over captaincy from Virat Kohli in all formats last year, and people had huge expectations from him. India has not been able to win major tournaments while constantly reaching the knockout stages. The last time India won any major ICC tournament was back in 2013 under the captaincy of MS Dhoni, lifting the ICC Champions Trophy.
Under Rohit’s tenure as India witnessed exit in the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup in Australia last year. It was a crushing defeat as England demolished the Men in Blue by 10 wickets, as the Nagpur-born himself enduring a lean patch with the bat throughout the tournament, culminating in a modest knock of 27 in the semi-final.
The disappointment continued in the recent World Test Championship (WTC) 2023 final against Australia, where India fell short and lost the match by 209 runs. In the summit clash at The Oval, the Indian skipper was dismissed for 15 and 43.
While reviewing India’s performance over the last year and a half, Sunil Gavaskar shared his views on Rohit’s leadership. Speaking at the Indian Express Idea Exchange, the 74-year-old said that he expected more from Rohit as the captain and has been left disappointed with a few aspects of his reign.
“I expected more from him (Rohit). In India it is different, but when you do well overseas that is really the test. That is where he has been a little disappointing. Even in the T20 format, with all the experience of the IPL, hundreds of matches as captain, with a mix of best IPL players not being able to get to the finals has been disappointing,” the legendary Indian batter said
Gavaskar also wanted to know if a review of the captain and the team management was done in the aftermath of the losses of the Indian team. The legendary batter specifically pointed out to the WTC Final and said Rohit and coach Rahul Dravid should have been asked about the decisions they made during the match.
“They should be asking questions, ‘Why did you field first?’ Ok, it was explained at the toss that it was overcast and all. The question after that should be, ‘you didn’t know about Travis Head’s weakness against the short ball’. Why was the bouncer employed only when he had scored 80? The moment Head came in to bat, Ricky Ponting in the commentary box said ‘Bounce him, Bounce him’ Everyone knew but we didn’t try,” the veteran cricketer concluded.
Meanwhile, India will take on the West Indies in a two-match Test series starting from July 12 in Dominica.
