Former Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Sourav Ganguly revealed that Rohit Sharma was not ready to captain India after Virat Kohli stepped down from the post. Rohit was appointed India’s white-ball captain in 2021 and was handed the reins of Test captaincy in January 2022 after Virat Kohli stepped down from the role.
India have played the World Test Championship final, the ODI World Cup 2023 final, Won the Asia Cup and featured in the semifinal of the T20 World Cup 2022 and now under his leadership India is just a win away from the ongoing T20 World Cup 2024. Ganguly said that the cricket board pushed him to lead India.
Ganguly praised Rohit for India's performance in the ODI World Cup 2024 and the ongoing T20 World Cup 2024 where India are stormed into the final without losing a single game.
“He (Rohit) has played two World Cup finals where he has gone into the final unbeaten. That speaks of his captaincy and leadership quality and I’m not surprised because he became captain when I was the BCCI president and when Virat didn’t want to captain India anymore,” Ganguly was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
“It took a lot of time to make him captain because he was not ready to captain. It took a lot of pushing from all of us to make him captain and I’m very happy to see the progress of Indian cricket under him,” he added.
Ganguly pointed out the fact that Rohit has five IPL titles as captain and winning the tournament requires one to win more matches as compared to a T20 World Cup.
“I’m very happy for Rohit Sharma. Life comes full circle. Six months ago he was not even the captain of Mumbai Indians and the same man is now leading India to a World Cup final, unbeaten,” Ganguly said.
“Rohit has the record of winning five IPL titles, which is a huge achievement. Winning an IPL sometimes is more difficult. Don’t misquote me, I’m not saying IPL is better than international cricket but you have to win 16-17 (12-13) matches to win an IPL; here you need to win 8-9 matches to win a World Cup. The honour is more in winning the World Cup, and I hope Rohit does it tomorrow,” he added.
MORE ON SPORTS TAK:
EXPLAINED: What if rain washes out the India vs South Africa T20 World Cup 2024 final clash?
'Humein na sikhayein reverse swing kaise hota hai...': Pakistan's Inzamam Ul Haq hits back at Rohit Sharma on ball-tampering debate
'Always in favour of India': Shoaib Akhtar lavishes praise on Rohit Sharma ahead of T20 World Cup 2024 final between India and South Africa