The Indian Cricket Team is on a successful run ever since Rohit Sharma took over the leadership role after India’s 2021 20-20 World Cup debacle. The ‘Men-in Blue’ are yet to lose a T20I series ever since Sharma took over Virat Kohli at the helm. Former West Indies skipper and two-time 20-20 World Cup winner Darren Sammy has hailed the Indian captain, calling him a “team-first” type of skipper.
Rohit will be leading India in the upcoming 20-20 World Cup scheduled to be held in Australia from 16th October. The 35-year-old will look to end India’s 20-20 World Cup drought since the inaugural edition way back in 2007. India has won 23 matches this year, a world record, and also more than 10 bilateral series as well in his captaincy. In his successful run, Sharma has led India to victories against West Indies, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, England, Australia, and now South Africa.
Praising the star batter for his leadership skills, Sammy said on journalist Vimal Kumar’s Youtube channel:
“I love the way he captains. That’s why the Mumbai franchise has been one of the most successful Indian T20 League teams. He is not a ‘him-first’ but a ‘team-first’ type of captain. When you have a leader that could motivate men, it doesn’t matter who does the job for the team, the team comes first. And Rohit Sharma comes across like that to me.”
Further commenting on India’s new batting approach of showing intent right from ball one, the 38-year-old said that changing the approach was the need of the hour for the Indian team. He stated that teams who focus on too much consolidation are at a disadvantage in the modern era.
“You have an app on your phone and you have to keep updating it. When they won, that (old) method was okay. But when you have teams that are capable of hitting boundaries, their chances of them scoring quicker than you will always be there. If you consolidate too much, you set yourself back. And if the people consolidating get out, then you have two new batters coming in,” the former West Indies captain said.
“If you go hard and try to put the bowlers under pressure early, even if you lose wickets, you are so high in the run rate, you can still consolidate. That’s what I see has changed with Rohit Sharma and India now. They have the personnel to actually do it. It would be interesting to see how it goes at this year’s World Cup in Australia,” the two-time 20-20 World Cup champion further said.
