India have reached their third successive ICC trophy final under the leadership of Rohit Sharma. Sharma, who took over from Virat Kohli in all formats of the game, has helped India play a much more aggressive brand of cricket, which has helped India dominate all formats of the game. Ahead of the final of the T20 World Cup 2024, former India batter Kris Srikkanth compared Rohit Sharma to the legendary Kapil Dev.
Speaking on Star Sports on the eve of the India vs South Africa game, Srikkanth said that there are similarities between Rohit Sharma and the Indian captain who won the 1983 World Cup, which is seen as a landmark event in Indian cricket history.
Srikkanth hailed Rohit’s ability to lead from the front and said that the India captain has walked the talk in the ongoing ICC tournament.
“I don’t like to compare eras and captains, but I just bring you a similarity between 1983 World Cup and this one. See in this World Cup who’s taking the lead as a leader? As a leader, Rohit Sharma said ‘Man, I’ll take up the lead. I’ll start playing the risky shots. I will take it up,’ and he’s played those fantastic shots and some fantastic knocks. And then everybody has been playing around him and everybody has done well,” Kris Srikkanth said.
Srikkanth felt that even the smaller contributions from the Indian players have been very important for the team in crunch situations.
“As a team, you need everybody. Maybe it could be Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, it could be Hardik Pandya, even 10-12 runs from Axar Patel,” Srikkanth said.
The former batter lauded Rohit for using his resources right, especially in India’s semi-final match against England. Srikkanth felt that bringing in Axar Patel in the powerplay and giving him two overs was a masterful move from the Indian captain.
“And the best part is, and he is able to managed his bowlers brilliantly. Like last match against England, you saw the fourth over he brought in Axar Patel and he got a crucial wicket of Buttler. So what I like about him is calmness on the field, the calming effect, same thing what Kapil Dev did and everybody is contributing to the success of the team. It’s just not one person, so that’s what Rohit Sharma has done. He’s got the team together, which is very important as a captain and as a leader,” Srikkanth concluded.
India take on South Africa in the final of the T20 World Cup 2024 on 29 June, Saturday. The match is expected to be interrupted by rain.
