3 Olympic sports Rohit Sharma would have been good at if he wasn't a cricketer
India's ODI and Test captain Rohit Sharma has been a cult sporting figure due to his batting performances and astute leadership. He is the only batter to hit three double centuries in ODIs and is the leading run-getter in T20Is.
Making his India debut in 2007, Rohit has amassed over 19,000 runs across all formats of the game, with 48 hundreds and 106 fifties to boot. During this period, he has been part of two T20 World Cup victories (2007 and 2024) and the Champions Trophy (2013). Further, he is the joint-most successful IPL captain with five titles for the Mumbai Indians.
However, assuming Rohit Sharma wasn't a cricketer, which other sports could he have excelled in? With the ongoing Paris Olympics in mind, let's take a look at the three disciplines in which the 37-year-old would have been a right fit.
#1 Hockey (Goalkeeper)
The biggest quality of a hockey goalkeeper is their fighting spirit and never-give-up attitude. Recently, the Indian hockey team clinched the bronze medal at Paris 2024, marked by skipper Harmanpreet Singh's goal-scoring spree and the commendable defence of goalkeeper PR Sreejesh.
Throughout the campaign and in his overall career, Sreejesh has displayed the ability to come back strong after a setback. After India were down to 10 men (red card for Amit Rohidas) in the quarterfinal against Great Britain, Sreejesh played like an extra defender for the side and thwarted multiple penalty corners. Thereafter, he was resilient in the penalty shootout as well, which helped India win 4-2.
Rohit Sharma could have been the right fit as a goalkeeper for the hockey team. The biggest example of his fighting spirit was witnessed in the 2024 T20 World Cup final against South Africa. After Heinrich Klaasen clobbered 24 runs off Axar Patel in the 15th over, the Proteas just needed 30 off as many balls, with the game looking done and dusted.
But Rohit brought his key bowler Jasprit Bumrah into the attack at the right time. Only four runs came in that over. The veteran decided to bowl out Bumrah to keep up the pressure on South Africa. And he responded by giving away only two runs off the 18th over while also taking a wicket.
The rest of the work was well taken care of by Hardik Pandya and Arshdeep Singh, as India went on to win the game by seven runs.
So, Rohit could have excelled as a hockey goalkeeper due to his tactical brilliance and never-give-up attitude, as evidenced by his IPL success as well.
#2 Table Tennis
The key skills to becoming a credible table tennis player is having good footwork, grip, good reaction time, and finesse and control in their shots. Also, the ability to spin the ball can be unpredictable for the opponents in this game.
In this context, Rohit Sharma has been known to judge the ball well and having a terrific reaction time against pacers. He gets into a good position especially against the short ball, transferring his weight onto the backfoot perfectly with a steady head. He seems to have that one second extra as opposed to other batters.
Moreover, he has proved his mettle as a spinner, at least in the IPL, where he took a hat-trick as well. Hence, the veteran batter could have done well in this sport as well.
#3 Golf
Golf is seen as a natural adaptation of a cricketer's skillset due to the bat/club swing in both sports. Apart from a good swing, a mental focus or awareness is needed to be competitive in golf.
In this case, Rohit Sharma has been one of the most effortless six-hitters in this century, owing to his impressive timing and the ability to generate power for his shots.
Talking about match awareness, Rohit Sharma has been terrific in that domain. In the 2023 ODI World Cup, the India captain slammed 401 runs at an average of 80.2 and a prolific strike rate of 135.01 just in the powerplay, thus taking advantage of the field restrictions. His performances played a huge role in India emerging as runners-up in the tournament.
Rohit would have thus been a fine golf player due to his bat swing, timing and ability to play according to the situation.