"He has changed Indian cricket in many ways" - Irfan Pathan on Rohit Sharma the captain after winning the 2024 T20 World Cup
Irfan Pathan has lauded Rohit Sharma for changing the Indian team's mindset as captain. He noted that the 2024 T20 World Cup-winning skipper would have been India's most successful Indian captain ever had his team also won the 2023 World Test Championship (WTC) and ODI World Cup finals.
India fell at the last hurdle to Australia in both the WTC and ODI World Cup finals last year. The Men in Blue won their first ICC event in 11 years after beating South Africa by seven runs in the 2024 T20 World Cup final in Barbados on Saturday, June 29.
While speaking on Star Sports, Pathan showered praise on Rohit as captain.
"If you ask Rohit Sharma after winning the World Cup trophy whether he can fly, he will say he can fly and jump from anywhere because he has changed Indian cricket in many ways. You have the great Kapil Dev as a fantastic leader who actually made us believe that we can win the World Cup. We had Sourav Ganguly, who made an impact on Indian cricket in a big way," he said.
"We had MS Dhoni, the most successful Indian captain ever, but whenever you will talk about Rohit Sharma, you will say he was one of the most successful Indian captains. Imagine, if he had won the WTC trophy, the 50-over World Cup trophy, and the T20 World Cup now, he would have been the most successful Indian captain ever," the former India all-rounder added.
MS Dhoni led India to the 2007 T20 World Cup, 2011 ODI World Cup and 2013 Champions Trophy titles. While Kapil Dev captained India to their maiden ICC title in the 1983 ODI World Cup, the Men in Blue reached the 2003 ODI World Cup final and were the joint-winners with Sri Lanka in the 2002 Champions Trophy under Sourav Ganguly's leadership.
"He actually was the captain who walked the talk" - Irfan Pathan on Rohit Sharma
Irfan Pathan pointed out that Rohit Sharma led by example as a skipper.
"Apart from those laurels where he took the Indian team to the finals, and now crossing the finish line, the kind of impact he had as a cricketer, he actually was the captain who walked the talk. He said he wanted to change how the Indian team plays T20 cricket," he observed.
The cricketer-turned-commentator added that the Mumbaikar deserves credit for the risky approach he adopted at the top of the order.
"He said he wanted to take the onus on himself, that he generally used to take time for two overs but what he would do now was change it, that he would go hard from ball one. As a captain, it's not easy. There is a risk that if you go hard from the first ball and if you don't perform, you can't take your team forward. But Rohit Sharma took that risk and he rightly deserves the credit," Pathan explained.
Pathan also appreciated Rohit for his captaincy decisions. He pointed out that the Indian skipper bet on Rishabh Pant as the No. 3 batter, backed a previously underperforming Hardik Pandya as vice-captain and extracted the best from him, chose four spinners heading into the tournament, and used Axar Patel as a floater in the batting order.