Veteran Indian all-rounder, opening batsman and ex-Indian Head coach, Ravi Shastri was recently interviewed by the ICC, where he spoke highly of Rohit Sharma’s ability as a white-ball skipper.
Rohit recently went on to overtake legendary Indian skipper MS Dhoni as a T20 skipper, he had a memorable stint with team India on their road to a title win in the T20 World Cup 2024. Rohit now has a record of 49 wins in 62 games, while surpassing Dhoni’s excellence of 41 victories in 72 games.
Shastri claimed that this was his biggest probable compliment for the T20 World Cup-winning Indian skipper, as this is eminent to all that how high the standards of Dhoni as a skipper in the history of Indian cricket.
Rohit’s tactical brilliance, on-field presence and his calmness was largely praised by the ex-India coach. He added that Rohit would go down as one of the best captains alongside MS Dhoni.
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Ravi Shastri said to the ICC official (Source: ICC)
“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 has done and the titles he has won.”
India who went undefeated into the T20 World Cup finals, won 8 of their 9 games while one ended without any result. India made a strong comeback, defending 30 runs in the final, though all praise often went to Bumrah’s tight overs, Pandya’s wickets and Surya’s breathtaking catch, it all was orchestrated under Rohit’s leadership.
Next for Shastri, went all praise for the batting abilities of the veteran Indian skipper who retired from international T20s in the USA. Rohit has been acclaimed as a “white-ball great” by Ravi Shastri, who also adds that he will be a part of any white-ball team, irrespective of players from whichever era are picked.
Rohit’s 14940 runs scored across formats of white-ball international cricket and 36 hundreds confirm Shastri’s claim. He also has two ICC T20 World Cups and a Champions Trophy under his belt, what else would add charm to his near-to-perfect limited-overs career?
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Speaking of comparison with Virat Kohli, Shastri said the obvious, that Virat has more finesse, as he often produces gradual starts with low-risk factors. However, Rohit unlike Kohli is a far more explosive batter, he can be seen often taking on the pacers and also destroying them with his attacks launched on spinners as well.
With his aggressive intent, Rohit equals Aussie dynamic all-rounder Glenn Maxwell in having 5 international T20I centuries and also an iconic record of having scored 3 double hundreds in ODI cricket.