Former South African cricketer Jonty Rhodes, who has seen Rohit Sharma grow into a global cricketing powerhouse while still serving as a batter and captain, said the opener's "naughty" side was always present.
Rohit was one of those cricketers who never passed up an occasion to chat with his teammates or reporters during press conferences. That facet of his has recently been recorded on stump microphones several times during India's matches, particularly since he took over as captain.
“The way that he interacts with his teammates, he's quite a character. He's quite a naughty boy, almost. He says a few things on the stump mic and you go 'Oh! Do you know people are listening, Ro?' I don't understand all of it but it's always broadcast and translated for us," Rhodes said in an interview with Rev Sports.
One of Rohit's strengths as captain has been his ability to maintain a good rapport with the team's younger players. Rhodes believes his big brother mentality deserves credit for this.
"From a captaincy point of view, he has been superb. I was with him at MI for a quite few seasons. He grew as a captain there and that's the best thing about him," Rhodes said.
Rhodes also spoke about how Rohit Sharma has changed his game in white-ball cricket to stay relevant. Rhodes said Rohit did not want opposition teams to figure out his methods.
"Cricketers have to keep reinventing themselves. You are found out easily at the international level. I was dropped for two years from Test cricket because I had a technical issue. If you look at Rohit, so much cricket has been played that if you don't evolve, you are going to be stuck. People are going to figure you out," he added.
Rohit is currently 37 years old, but Rhodes believes that if the Indian skipper continues to bat with the same approach, his finest days are ahead of him, at least in the shorter format.
"What you see now, if you finish your international career, doesn't mean your career is over. There's still a lot of opportunities. We've seen so many guys carry on and play at the IPL. Form the perspective, I think he's got some of the best years ahead of him,” Rhodes added.
Rohit Sharma will be seen in action when Bangladesh visits India for a two-Test series this month.
