Lad also recalled heartwarming memory when he first spotted Rohit.
Rohit Sharma’s childhood coach Dinesh Lad has on Friday (August 28) heaped praise on India’s white-ball vice-captain and said he wants his student to win the 2023 World Cup for India on his own ability.
The star opening batsman missed out on the opportunity to win the World Cup in 2019 where India was outclassed by New Zealand in the Semi-Finals despite being the tournament’s leading scorer with 648 runs and the only batsman in history to hit five centuries in a single edition of the mega event.
Rohit was recently honored with the prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, India’s highest sporting honor, and became only the fourth cricketer in history to receive the honor and Mumbai region’s renowned cricket coach Lad said his protege has achieved all this through his hard work and talent.
Lad said on Marathi cricket chat show "Coffee Cricket Ani Barech Kahi": “Getting the Khel Ratna is a great achievement. I should not say this but if a poor boy has the talent and he justifies it and has luck, then that boy can reach the sky and a living example of it is Rohit Sharma.”
He further added, “All that he has earned due to his hard work and talent. My expectation is that the forthcoming 50-over World Cup, Rohit should win it for India on his own ability.”
Lad also recalled that his first memory of a young Rohit when one of the greatest white-ball batsmen impressed the coach not with his batting, but by rolling his arm over during one of his school performances. He also revealed Rohit's uncle was unable to afford the school's fees and it was on his insistence that he was given free admission into the school.
He recalled, “There was one camp organized in Borivali, and there were some matches organized. I had put my school's team and Rohit's team came into the final and it was a 10 over game on a cement wicket, we won that game. That time our school was new and I used to search for kids, the way Rohit bowled, I was impressed and thought that we should take this kid to our school.”
Lad signed off by saying, “I asked the (school) director to waive off his fees and Rohit was the first kid for whom I did that, at that time I didn't think that he would play for India. They admitted him. If at that time, this granted freeship wouldn't have happened, you wouldn't have seen Rohit Sharma.”
(With PTI Inputs)