Indian skipper Rohit Sharma’s tactical acumen puts him on par with the legendary Mahendra Singh Dhoni in white ball formats in which he will go down as a batting giant across the eras, reckoned former head coach Ravi Shastri. Rohit recently guided India to their second T20 World Cup title with a win over South Africa in the final at Barbados, breaking a more than decade-long title drought in ICC event Rohit has overtaken former skipper Dhoni as the most successful T20I captain with 49 wins in 62 matches. Dhoni had led India to 41 victories in 72 games.
“As a tactician, let’s not forget that he’s (Rohit) been an outstanding guy. He’ll go down as one of the best captains ever alongside Dhoni,” Shastri said on the ICC Review.
Dhoni captained India to success in three ICC tournaments — the inaugural T20 World Cup in 2007, the 2011 Cricket World Cup and the 2013 Champions Trophy.
“If you ask me who’s better, I’d say both are on par when it comes to tactics in the white-ball game. I can’t pay a bigger compliment to Rohit than that because you know what MS (Dhoni) has done and the titles he has won.”
“Rohit is not far behind and I thought tactically he was just outstanding in this year’s (T20) World Cup,” Shastri added.
India, under Rohit, won eight out of their nine matches with one ending without a result during the T20 World Cup in the Americas.
“Just the calmness, the ability to get a (Jasprit) Bumrah or a (Hardik) Pandya, or even an Axar Patel at just the right time was great to see (in the T20 World Cup),” said Shastri.
