BRIDGETOWN (Barbados): The once-chubby teenager is a greying veteran now. The young Mumbai boy, who loved to fool around off the field and bat like a happy prince when on it, has seen all the ups and downs a cricketer can experience over an 18-year career.And now, as Rohit Sharma pulls the curtains down on his T20 International career, the World Cup-winning captain feels life has come full circle.
WISH TEAM INDIA
“Someone told me sometime back that when I started in 2007, I won the World Cup in South Africa and now I am leaving with another World Cup. My career has truly come a full circle,” Rohit said at the Kensington Oval after India’s win.
The official press conference was done long back, in which he announced that he was retiring from the format. The captain was soaking in the moment of victory with his teammates, coaches and support staff.
When the media requested him for another chat on his T20 career, Rohit was typically accomodating.
“Chalo, kar lo yaar, aa jao (okay, do it, come over).” He called us in front of the dressing room.
The skipper went back to those days of youth when he was just finding his feet as an international cricketer. As a member of MS Dhoni’s side that won the first World T20, he batted at No. 6 in the final against Pakistan. In the last over of the innings, the then 20-year-old hit left-arm pacer Sohail Tanveer for a six, a shot that doesn’t get discussed too often.
It was a crucial shot that proved to be the difference in the end and when TOI reminded him of it, Rohit said: “Haan, bilkul yaad hain (yes, I remember), I was a kid then…basically I had a role then to play as a No. 5 or 6 and finishing used to be important. Scores of 150 those days used to be challenging and I was still in the process of learning the format. Now I understand it much better and I tell these young boys how important it is to perform those little roles given to them.”
Rohit has gone through many phases as a batter. From a middl-eorder floater, he slowly turned into a white-ball opener and by the middle of the 2010s, he became a bit of a monster who started getting feared by one and all. But his real development as a cricketer happened later in the decade, when he mastered the red ball, and that too, as an opener. And that went a long way in him becoming an all-format captain, a role that he has performed wonderfully well.
Rohit will continue to play ODIs and Tests, as well as the IPL. But when asked how difficult it is to juggle formats, the 37-year-old said: “Oh yes, all formats are different and it is difficult to adapt, more so as a captain. There are technical aspects that you have to work very hard on. “Then there’s constant planning in T20s to out-think a batter, but you know it’s a fun format, a challenge. I have always enjoyed challenges.”
Had India won the ODI World Cup in November last year, there was a serious possibility that Rohit and Virat Kohli would probably have skipped the T20 World Cup. Sources close to the team management had indicated that it was the disappointment of Nov 19, 2023 that pushed them to carry on for that sense of closure. But Rohit said he doesn’t “make decisions so far ahead”.
“Whatever I feel right inside me, I do that. I don’t know whether I would have played or not. In fact, I hadn’t thought that I would retire from T20s here, just that I thought this was a perfect situation for me,” the right-hander insisted, adding that this World Cup was something that he desperately wanted to win.
It felt all so right that a captain who has been so consistent and scored three crucial half-centuries in this World Cup, and also played the best innings of the event against Australia, has had his wish fulfilled.
