Newly-appointed white-ball captain Rohit Sharma believes that despite the Indian team undergoing a significant leadership overhaul in the last few months in white-ball cricket, Virat Kohli’s presence as a batter will still be significant for the unit.

Since taking charge of the ODI side in 2017, Kohli notched up 5449 runs including 21 centuries. He is also fourth in the list of most ODI wins by an Indian captain. Rohit meanwhile captained India in the 50-over sporadically and even won the 2018 Asia Cup in Kohli’s absence from the squad.

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"A batter of Kohli's quality is always needed in the squad. To have an average of 50 plus in the T20 format, it is crazy and unreal. Obviously, with the experience... he has batted and bailed India out so many times from difficult situations.

The quality and his kind of batsmanship is required. Plus, he is still a leader of the team. All those things put together, you don’t want to miss out. You don’t want to ignore that kind of stuff. His presence is very important to the team," said Rohit on the show 'Backstage with Boria', organized by veteran sports journalist Boria Majumdar.

Virat Kohli had stepped down as T20I captain after the T20 World Cup 2021 debacle and Rohit in his first stint as new captain whitewashed New Zealand at home. His first assignment as the ODI skipper will be the three-match series in South Africa.

Rohit has also been promoted to vice-captaincy of India’s Test team, which will travel to South Africa shortly for three Tests and three ODIs.