Luminescence at the End of the Tunnel for Rohit

These six months have been harsh for Rohit Sharma, especially in terms of achieving runs. Things were looking so hopeless at one stage that he had to drop himself from the playing eleven. But there’s always a light at the end of the tunnel and for Rohit, that light wasn’t just a normal light. It was powered by radiance, luminescence and resplendence. Few India skippers would be as worthy of the champions trophy glory as Rohit.

Amid intense speculation surrounding his future and with rumors of differences between him and coach Gautam Gambhir, his immediate prospects seemed clouded. Nevertheless, Rohit refused to sacrifice his flair and style of batting. In fact, his only goal was to face the bowlers and make sure that the team got through the initial phase without a hitch.

Here in Dubai, he always did well for himself in the Champions Trophy, although some pundits like Sunil Gavaskar were not happy with the way he went about his innings. “As a batter, are you happy with scoring 25-30 runs? You shouldn't be,” Gavaskar remarked on the India Today channel prior to the final, highlighting two digits of his scores prior to the title clash of 41, 20, 15, and 28. On Sunday night, he turned up for the match and scored an astounding 76. That made him the player of the final.

When he goes on one of his rampaging innings, there is this air of raw bone nanginess that always follows him. He would try to bludgeon the new ball straight down the throat of the fielders, and they always took advantage of the field restrictions. Now with over 11,000 runs, his name has always been a trusty one within the team structure, although his contributions in recent matches have become rather dismal. That effort on Sunday should earn him some praise.

There was disinterestedness in the Dubai International Cricket Cricket Stadium (DICS) as with the old ball and a field that was placed far away, it is not easy to score. He has been playing proactive and he wanted to continue.

"I have done nothing out of the ordinary. I have been doing the same things for the last 3-4 matches. I understand how scoring in the powerplay is crucial, as we saw not in one or two games, but all five games, after 10 overs, the game becomes very challenging, especially when the field is open and the spinners come in," Rohit said while describing the challenge of scoring runs here. "There has not been a single total in excess of 300 in the five games played here."

“We haven't been able to see the bigs runs come in like throughout where if I had an execution plan then that is fine. As long as I am clear on what needs to be done, it's pretty much okay. I mean you all saw that after 10 overs I changed my approach a bit. I was hoping to bat for long You know, but also tried to force the issue and got out. But when you win a match and you have contributed to it - It feels even better.”

“Even though I did contribute a lot in the 2019 World Cup, we did not win, so it wasn't fun. You can even score 30 or 40 runs and in winning matches, you feel more satisfaction and happiness. It feels satisfying for me to know that I did something to bring the team in a position to be comfortable for the rest of the batting order.” Scoring runs is the easiest part of Rohit's work. Motivating the rest of the team is the hard part. He has won two out of four global events, and also reached the finals of the other two. At some point, there is always a chance for overconfidence and the consequences would be certain losses. "Losing a series here and there does not define if the team is underperforming. Everyone is entitled to lose, and we lost a series in India against New Zealand, the Test series. It’s part of the game, especially when we step onto the field, we expect to be victorious.”

But that is not likely to happen, this is a sport after all, there is always a competition which is also putting in the effort to win." Keeping the collective hunger of the team intact is not easy. Rohit, though, refers to his side as a bloody good team. “I do not think there is too much that is being done at that level. Eventually, you are representing your nation and that is understood by everyone. So that is not where I come into play. Whatever decisions are made in terms of selection, there are some expectations that they will fulfill. As I said, there is a lot of hunger. I repeat, even for the guys who have played a lot of cricket, it’s not their job to teach."

He continued, "No, obviously it’s not like that for me. You know, many of the captains that came before me and the ones that already were capo processo the team before me, a good part of the credit goes to them. Certainly many of the coaches who have come before Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid and all these other guys - the credit is for all of them. Undoubtedly, India is a bloody good team." “He is also a bloody good player of course, but more importantly he is a bloody good captain and who understood that in order for the team to be bloody good, it had to win the ICC knockout matches. It had not been winning for a while.”

In the last three ICC events, they were defeated only once while winning two trophies. Quite outrageous, wouldn’t you say?