"There have been a lot of positives since Rohit Sharma has taken over the captaincy" - Rajkumar Sharma
Virat Kohli's childhood coach Rajkumar Sharma believes there have been a lot of positives since Rohit Sharma took over the reins of Team India.
After Kohli opted to let go of Team India's T20I captaincy following the team's poor showing in the T20 World Cup 2021, the selectors chose to appoint Rohit as skipper for both white-ball formats. The Mumbaikar has subsequently been given the reins in all formats, with Kohli deciding to quit as Test skipper as well.
During a discussion on India News, Rajkumar Sharma was asked about Rohit's stint as skipper thus far. He responded:
"There have been a lot of positives since Rohit Sharma has taken over the captaincy. A new coach has also come along with him, in the form of Rahul Dravid. This pair has come with a different thinking from Virat Kohli and Ravi Shastri."
While highlighting Rohit's contrasting captaincy style as compared to Kohli, the former first-class cricketer lauded the new Indian skipper for grooming the youngsters. Rajkumar Sharma elaborated:
"While Virat was extremely aggressive, Rohit is calm to a certain extent. But he is concentrating on team building and the good thing is that he is grooming the youngsters for the World Cup - the likes of Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav and Ravi Bishnoi are getting developed for big cricket."
Suryakumar Yadav and Shreyas Iyer have been Team India's standout performers in their last two T20I series, walking away with the Player of the Series awards against West Indies and Sri Lanka, respectively. Ravi Bishnoi also gave a decent account of himself in the four T20Is he played.
"It feels great to see Rohit Sharma's progress" - Saba Karim
Saba Karim was effusive in his praise for Rohit Sharma's growth as a cricketer. He observed:
"It feels great to see Rohit Sharma's progress. First, he gave excellent performances in white-ball cricket and he got to learn a lot from there. Along with that, it was in his mind that he has to prove himself as a Test batter."
The former India selector added that the success Rohit has achieved in Test cricket lately has helped him immensely. Karim explained:
"His confidence kept on increasing when he started doing that. Since he has become the full-time captain, it seems Rohit has realized that he belongs here, his contribution is extremely necessary both as captain and batter."
Saba Karim concluded by speaking highly of Rohit's player management skills. He said:
"The way he treats the players, the communication level is extremely high, the sort of things he has said about the players in press conferences, the sort of environment he wants to maintain in the team - it feels great to see all that."
Rohit is known to be a player's captain. Many cricketers have showered praise on him for allowing them to play freely and backing them to the hilt.