With a perfect balance between head and heart, ‘Hit-Man’ has taken India into the tournament final
New Delhi, Nov 16: How many hundreds did Rohit Sharma miss in this World Cup? At least five if not more. But how many hearts did he win with his new found no-holds barred attacking approach? May be a billion.With a perfect balance between head and heart, Rohit has taken India into the tournament final.
The high-risk approach has cost him personal milestones but having put team above self, the ‘Hit-Man’ didn’t deviate from his game-plan as he is on a mission to complete what he termed at the start as unfinished business’.
He will be 36 years and 203 days old on November 19, a day which would possibly be his ‘last dance’ and effectively a last chance to win the coveted 50 over World Cup title.
The next 50-over World Cup is too far away and someone that oozes practicality from literally every bone of his body, it would be a long shot to think that at 40 he would be game to play 100-over per day matches in 2027.
Hence November 19, 2023, could be the ‘Red Letter Day’ in 16 and half years of Rohit’s chequered career punctuated with lot of ups and downs.“In the next two months, I want to create a lot of memories with this team,” Rohit had told PTI just before the Asia Cup.And boy did he make some fabulous memories in last six weeks giving India its own customized version of ‘La Decima (10 in Spanish and Italian) in this year’s global cricket meet.
Nasser Hussain pointed out during his chat in Sky Sports what the Indian skipper had told Dinesh Karthik after the last World T20 semi-final thrashing at the hands of eventual champions England.
“We need to change our approach,” Rohit had told Karthik, who was part of that squad.
A change of approach is always a result of change of mindset and when the captain walks the talk, it becomes very easy for others to follow.
When Rohit first became a full-time skipper, in one of his earlier press meets, he had said a very pertinent thing.“I won’t tell anyone to do anything that I myself won’t do,” Rohit has said back then.
But Rohit has always been like that, his childhood coach Dinesh Lad said.“I remember an incident from his U-19 days. It wasn’t from a game. We were all standing somewhere and there was this gleaming Mercedes parked on the other side of the road. Rohit looked at it for some time and said: ‘Yeh main ek din kharidoonga (I will buy this car one day’).
smiling while looking skywards.
The captain has done his hard yards and it is time for his teammates to win it for their skipper. (PTI)