'Rohit Sharma is a bowler's captain,' says former Mumbai Indians spinner Pragyan Ojha
Former Indian spinner Pragyan Ojha on Saturday labelled Rohit Sharma as a 'bowler's captain' and spoke about why the opener has been successful in his stints as captain of various teams.
"Rohit is a bowler's captain. He understands the bowlers. If you take care of bowlers in a tournament that is cruel to the bowlers, that's something that will give you results. MS Dhoni, Rohit are successful because they take care of bowlers. The same case with Virat Kohli in Tests and ODIs, if you take care of bowlers it will help. Bowlers will take 20 wickets and win matches," Ojha said.
Ojha and Rohit Sharma first played together for the Deccan Chargers in the Indian Premier League, from 2008-2010. Rohit Sharma then shifted to the Mumbai Indians for the 2011 season, and Ojha joined him at MI from the 2012 season.
"Rohit Sharma was the most bindaas player"
While Ojha didn't play under Rohit Sharma's captaincy at the now-defunct Chargers, the left-arm spinner's first few games under the Mumbaikar's stewardship came during the 2013 IPL season.
Rohit Sharma took over the MI captaincy duties from Ricky Ponting mid-way through the 2013 IPL season and even led his side to their first IPL title. Since then, Rohit Sharma has evolved into one of the most successful IPL captains of all time, with four IPL titles to his name as captain.
Ojha, who played for MI until IPL 2015 also spoke about how Rohit Sharma's attitude is one of the Indian opener's most striking features.
“Rohit Sharma was the most bindass (cool) cricketer during my playing days. Even now as captain he's bindaas and fearless. He doesn’t fear anything and he has that typical Mumbai attitude of expressing himself,” Ojha added.
One of India's most impressive left-arm spinners, Ojha played 24 Tests, 16 ODIs and 6 T20Is for the national side. The southpaw made his domestic cricket debut with Hyderabad, before he turned out for Bengal and then for Bihar in the first-class format.