Former India captain, opening batter, and BCCI president Sourav Ganguly feels that Jay Shah was right in his decision to re-appoint Rohit Sharma as the skipper for the ICC T20 World Cup 2024 at the USA and West Indies later this June instead of Hardik Pandya who is on his way to attain full recovery from an ankle injury that has seen him in the sidelines for more than 4 months.
Pandya is expected to remain out until at least March and will make his return through the Indian Premier League 2024 where he will be captaining the Mumbai Indians. The Mark Boucher-led MI management decided to trade Hardik back to their side with the all-rounder arriving at the condition of replacing Rohit Sharma who led the team to 5-IPL trophies, as the captain.
Sourav Ganguly speaks up on Rohit Sharma being named India’s T20 WC Captain
Mumbai’s decision was not welcomed at all by their fans and things escalated after Boucher claimed that Rohit Sharma might be playing his final few years in the IPL so bringing back Hardik Pandya was the best option. Rohit’s wife Ritika Sharma found those comments wrong and the possible beef between them caught fire even more. It will be interesting to see how MI performs amid this internal dispute.
Meanwhile, Sourav Ganguly praised Rohit’s captaincy, claiming he is the best captaincy choice for the T20 World Cup as he did a commendable job in the Cricket World Cup 2023.
“Rohit Sharma is the right choice as India captain for the T20 World Cup. The way he led the Indian team and won 10 matches in the 50-over World Cup is still fresh in our memory. So, Rohit was the best choice.” – Ganguly said via Mid-Day.
Winning the Anthony de Mello trophy on sight for Rohit Sharma
Silverwares have always been the most important thing for Rohit Sharma in his cricketing career and he believes regardless of quality individual performances, if a player doesn’t win major titles, all of the hard work, centuries, five-fors, and 7-fors do not matter.
He had made these comments very recently in an interview with Dinesh Karthik before the 5-match Test series against England began and Rohit will have the chance of adding another home bilateral trophy if India claim victory in the 4th Test in Ranchi, which is starting from the 23rd February onwards.
After helping the Indian team register their biggest-ever win in Test cricket by 434 runs in the 3rd Rajkot Test, Rohit backed his bowlers, claiming they have got their class and also applauded the team for showcasing a strong character to stage a turnaround and double their lead in the series.
“When you are playing Test cricket, it is not played over 2-3 days. We do understand the importance of playing over 5 days. They played well and put us under pressure. We have got class in our bowling, the message was to stay calm and I’m proud of how we came back the next day. When those things happen, it’s a delight.” Rohit Sharma told reporters after the win at Rajkot.