Former India assistant coach Abhishek Nayar praised Rohit Sharma’s leadership for fostering a secure dressing room, noting that latter never blamed players for defeats but instead shouldered responsibility himself.
Nayar’s comment came amidst severe scrutiny of Shreyas Iyer, who remained winless in his first assignment as India’s T20I captain on the tour of UK. While the Men in Blue suffered a humiliating 0-2 series defeat to Ireland, they failed to register a victory in four completed games against England.
The consecutive series whitewash has piled pressure on Shreyas, who replaced Suryakumar Yadav as India’s T20I skipper despite not being part of the side’s triumphant World Cup campaign earlier this year.
During the England series, Iyer also faced backlash for his comments after Ravi Bishnoi gave away 29 runs in an over at Old Trafford, which included consecutive no-balls hit for sixes by Jacob Bethell.
The skipper stated that India had a "phenomenal score" on the board, but pinned the match-turning momentum shift directly on Bishnoi's costly no-balls, telling critics to "pinpoint that one over". Fans and analysts accused him of throwing the leg-spinner under the bus.
“We had Rohit Sharma as captain, and I remember him coming out after the Mumbai Test and saying in the press conference, ‘It’s okay. We’ve won so many series, we’ve lost this one, and I’ll take responsibility for it.’ That’s who Rohit was," Nayar said, speaking on JioStar’s ‘Googlies’ about the dressing room environment after tough defeats during his stint.
“There was always that side of him that could lighten the mood and make sure the team was okay. Of course, whenever India loses, it hurts everyone. But the one thing he did exceptionally well was look after his players. He would think about who had been affected the most, who hadn’t scored runs, and how he could make them feel better. The quality I admired most about Rohit was that he always took responsibility. He would never come out and blame anyone by saying, ‘You did this’ or ‘You did that.’ Instead, he would put his hand up and say, ‘I failed.’ You would never hear him making excuses or throwing someone under the bus," he added.
Abhishek Nayar detailed how Rohit’s clear communication and concern for even non-playing members like Sanju Samson kept the squad united.
“Sanju Samson spoke about it too after he was left out of the T20 World Cup final in Barbados. Even though Sanju wasn’t playing, Rohit made sure he spoke to him before the toss because he was concerned about how he was feeling. Those difficult phases were a little easier because Rohit Sharma was around," Nayar remarked.
