World Cup 2023: Would rather have it when I know how to captain a team – Rohit Sharma opens up on his leadership role

Indian skipper Rohit Sharma has opened up on the timing of getting captaincy for the national team. Rohit was anointed as India’s captain in the T20I format after Virat Kohli relinquished his duties after the 2021 T20 World Cup. Subsequently, Rohit was also named as India’s ODI and Test captain.

In fact, Rohit has all the leadership experience under his belt and has taken Mumbai Indians to five titles in the Indian Premier League. Recently India also won the Asia Cup under the captaincy of Rohit Sharma and he would want to lead from the front in the upcoming ODI World Cup.

India has 39 wins in 51 T20I games under Rohit Sharma’s captaincy. He has also registered 29 total wins in Tests and ODIs. Furthermore, Rohit took the national team to the semifinals of the T20 World Cup 2022.

“That’s life. I got it now and I am grateful for it. I would rather have it when I know how to captain a team, when I know what is required and all. Rather than when I don’t know the ABCD of captaincy. So in that respect, this is good,” Rohit Sharma said in an interview with Indian Express.

Rohit added that some of the big names in Indian cricket missed out on a chance to lead the Indian team. The Indian opener feels Player of the Tournament of 2011 World Cup Yuvraj Singh should have served as Indian skipper.

“Just look at the names that are missed out – Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag. These are all stalwarts of Indian cricket. Not to forget Yuvraj Singh. He never captained India. Yuvraj has been such a match winner for India, he should have been the captain at some stage but he didn’t get it,” he added.

Rohit highlighted he would have liked to captain the team when he was at the peak of his prowess but he had to wait in line after MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli.

“Obviously, you want to be at your peak for this, say when you are 26-27. But you cannot always get what you want. You are talking about the Indian captaincy and there have been stalwarts in the Indian team. Many more players deserved to be the captain of the team. I had to wait for my turn and that’s absolutely fair enough. The guys before, Virat was before me, so was MS (Dhoni),” he expressed.

Rohit added they don’t want any of their fast bowlers to break down during the upcoming World Cup as it is a long tournament.

“A team needs to play 11 games to reach the World Cup final. Last time we played this format was in 2019, but to play 11 ODIs in one-and-half months is not easy. It’s a long World Cup. We don’t want any of our pacers to break down. Hence we have selected more of them,” he said.

India will begin their World Cup campaign against Australia at MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai on 8th October.