Team India’s ex-batting coach Vikram Rathour has hailed skipper Rohit Sharma as a player’s captain. The duo has been working together since Ravi Shastri was the head coach and recently rejoiced over their shared success at the T20 World Cup 2024.
After Virat Kohli’s period of command, Rohit slowly but surely claimed captaincy over all formats. Since then he has led India in three successive ICC finals apart from claiming the Asia Cup before heading into the 2024 ODI World Cup.
Rohit has built himself up as player’s captain with room for growth and transparency within his squad through its consistency and being an open team. Almost every young player, if not every single one, credits him for helping them get onto the side. Moreover, they emphasized his capacity to demonstrate compassion too .
Vikram Rathour replied that despite the skipper’s well-known forgetful nature, the game plan never leaves his mind under any situation.
“He might forget whether he has decided to bat or bowl at the toss, or his phone and iPad in the team bus but he never forgets his gameplan. He is very good at it and is a very shrewd tactician,” Rathour said on the podcast “Find a Way with Taruwar Kohli.”
Rohit Sharma has forgotten his passport at times before a tour or when coming back. Once, he forgot what he planned to do when he won the toss in an ODI against New Zealand in 2023.
“I’ve never encountered a captain so deeply engaged in team meetings and strategies”- Vikram Rathour on Rohit Sharma
It’s well known that Rohit Sharma is actively participating in the team developing and spending a lot of time on data collection and strategies behind the curtains.
“He is a player’s captain. He is invested with the players heavily. I have never seen a captain, who is so invested in team meetings and strategies. He spends a lot of time on the team’s strategy.”
“He is part of the bowlers’ meeting, batters meeting. And He wants to sit with the bowlers and batters to try and understand what they are thinking. He invests a lot of time with the players,” Rathour said in the same interaction.
Vikram Rahtour recently spoke about how Rohit Sharma decided to introduce Jasprit Bumrah before the death overs during the 2024 T20 World Cup final against South Africa.
This proved to be an important move because Bumrah’s two overs cornered the Proteas and gave Arshdeep Singh and Hardik Pandya enough runs to play with in the last couple of overs.
“He is tactically very good as a captain. In the T20 World Cup final, he finished Bumrah’s over early. A lot of people must have questioned that decision but that decision put us in the situation, where 16 was needed in the last over.”
“His tactical decisions on the field are spot on. Sitting outside It surprises you as a coach as well. We from outside sometimes think what he is doing but then you realise what he has done after a while,” Rahtour concluded.
Rohit Sharma had a strong series batting-wise, but India lost 0-2 on their recent tour to Sri Lanka, where he will be seen again with the start of next home season; it begins with a Test series against Bangladesh.
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