Rohit Sharma will complete 10 years as the captain of Mumbai Indians (MI) in the upcoming IPL 2023, slated to get underway on March 31.
Under Rohit, MI have lifted the IPL title as many as five times – the most by any franchise in the history of the tournament.
Ahead of the IPL 2023, former India cricketers Anil Kumble, Zaheer Khan and Aakash Chopra got together to analyse Rohit’s impact on MI and expectations from the skipper.
Kumble, who was associated with Mumbai Indians as a mentor in the past, shared insights on Rohit’s leadership style.
“He was not afraid to say what he had to say. He had plenty of experience around him and he reached out to them as well but then but took his own decisions. That’s what you want from a captain,” Kumble said on JioCinema’s Insiders Preview show.
Kumble also spoke about Sharma leading a new team to IPL 2017 title win. “2017 was a new team and the kind of captaincy we saw from him in terms of defending low scores, that’s when your true leadership comes out.”
Zaheer stressed on how a captain’s role is highly significant and said, “The captain’s role is of utmost importance, the way he is thinking and taking decisions in crucial stages in a cool manner and the right decisions, and if it doesn’t go your way, how he is handling the situation. It is a long tournament and every game’s performance can have an impact in the next game. Rohit has the ability and personality to absorb pressure very well. The way he communicates in a cool way, not just with players but also in press conferences, I think that is his biggest strength.”
Over the years, Rohit Sharma has predominantly opened the innings for MI and Kumble wants to see him bat at No. 4 this time around.
“Especially with the current MI team, you need that experience in the middle order. There are some wonderful batters that MI possesses, but I think someone like Rohit Sharma in the middle, controlling seven to fifteen overs is extremely critical.”
Aakash Chopra weighed in on the impact MI skipper has while batting and said, “When Rohit is batting, he does it beautifully and he’ll keep doing it. He’s doing it for India, for the Mumbai Indians. When he bats, he’s in a different league altogether,” said Chopra.
“As a result of that, people keep debating what’s best for Rohit. What is the place where you can get the best out of Rohit? He can open and easily score a century over 20 overs. The question arises, what’s best for Mumbai? As Anil bhai said, he may be more useful to the team batting at number four. It’s a toss-up between what’s best for Rohit and what’s best for Mumbai,” he added.
Mumbai Indians will begin their campaign against Royal Challengers Bangalore at the Chinnaswamy Stadium on April 2.
