New York, June 10: Rohit Sharma is a sharp, calm and astute leader. In his early days as a captain, he shocked many when he led Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League to their maiden title win. Later, he replicated the same feat four more times.
He has been leading India in all three formats after Virat Kohli and has achieved good success. However, despite leading India to ICC WTC championship final and ICC ODI World Cup 2023 final, Rohit could not lift the trophy as the winning capital. On both occasions he finished runners-up.
This year he was replaced as Mumbai Indians skipper by Hardik Pandya, which created a lot of flutter among fans and supporters.
Now, he is back against leading Team India in the ongoing ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2024 and he has won against Ireland and Pakistan.
Impressed with Rohit's leadership skills against Pakistan on Sunday, Australia's two-time ODI World Cup winning captain Ricky Ponting said he told India skipper Rohit that his captaincy was outstanding in the side’s thrilling six-run win over the arch rivals in a low-scoring Group A match in the T20 World Cup.
At the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium on Sunday, India were bowled out for 119 in 19 overs. In reply, India bowled superbly as Pakistan were restricted to 113-7 in 20 overs, to register their second win of the competition. Jasprit Bumrah was the hero of India’s win through his sensational spell of 3-14, including 15 dot balls.
He also got excellent support from Hardik Pandya, who took 2-6 from two overs after conceding 18 in his first two overs. Mohammed Siraj, Arshdeep Singh and Axar Patel took a wicket each to ensure India successfully defended their lowest total ever in T20Is in a remarkable low-scoring heist.
"Rohit Sharma is a very experienced captain, isn't he? And I just saw him then and said, mate, your captaincy today was outstanding. I don't think he could have done much more. You think about a lot of the bowlers that he's got in his team.”
"He's actually had those bowlers in the IPL as well, not only for India. So he understands them, knows when he can use them, but it's one thing for the captain to set a plan, the bowlers are going to go ahead and execute it and Bumrah was outstanding," said Ponting to ICC.
Ponting also hailed Pandya for his economical second spell and Patel for his economical bowling in the match. "I thought Hardik Pandya did a really good job with the ball as well, and then you break it down and this has been a wicket that the seamers have liked. But their spinners bowled four overs for 20 as well and Axar Patel picked up a big wicket. The wicket was definitely different in the second innings.”
"I mean, you can see Pakistan got the ball to hold up through natural variation, and you know, it was just a little bit tacky, but when the sun came out, the wicket dried out quite quickly and then you have to, you have to adapt and adjust on the run. I thought he did that really well," he added.
India, the 2007 T20 World Cup winners, now sit on top of Group A points table and will next face co-hosts USA in New York on Wednesday.
Ponting himself was a shrewd leader. He appreciating Rohit's leadership skills are fine. But perhaps playing his final ICC World Cup as a layer, Rohit and India would hope Team India win the T20 World Cup this time, after missing the ODI World Cup summit clash in Ahmedabad on November 19, 2023. ((With IANS support)
