Reign of Rohit Sharma starts with a stumble

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Rohit Sharma, who has now been confirmed as India’s white-ball international captain. For long, the Mumbai Indians captain has been in the shadow of his more illustrious colleague in Virat Kohli.
To just put things in perspective, Sourav Ganguly played some great innings. But he was never the best batsman in that Indian lineup. Any ranking of the time would put him fifth among the Big Five, of which Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Virendra Sehwag and VVS Laxman were the other four.
However, talking about the impact on Indian cricket — the game, not matches — might put Ganguly on top of the list because of the value he created as captain. In a similar vein, Rohit Sharma brings that leadership quality that binds the whole squad together.
Apart from being made the captain of ODI and T20 teams, Rohit was recently made the deputy to Virat Kohli in Test arena as well. However,
The BCCI press advisory mentioned Rohit Sharma’s left hamstring injury and his subsequent withdrawal from the upcoming three-Test tour of South Africa, but it didn’t name a stop-gap vice-captain. Only last week, Rohit had replaced Ajinkya Rahane as Virat Kohli’s deputy in Tests. With the former now ruled out, the position has fallen vacant for an overseas tour.

Rohit Sharma: New deputy

As regards Test vice-captaincy, apparently, the selectors have two options; going back to Rahane for this series or promoting KL Rahul for the job. Rahul has already been named as Rohit’s deputy in limited-overs cricket, attesting to a clear succession plan.
For Rohit, this is the second major tour affected by injury in the last 12 months. He only featured in the third and fourth Tests of India’s 2020-21 tour of Australia, missing the first two Tests due to a hamstring injury picked up during IPL 2020.
Rohit’s absence will be a blow to India’s preparations given he has been their highest Test run-getter in 2021.
Notably, when he was injured, Rohit Sharma was practising with Rishabh Pant, Ajinkya Rahane, KL Rahul and Shardul Thakur at the Sharad Pawar Academy.
31-year-old Priyank Panchal is set to replace Rohit in the Test team in the South Africa tour. Notably, this will not be Panchal’s maiden Test call-up as previously he was included in the India tour of the England squad and he was among reserve opening batters.

Rohit Sharma: True Leader

In a high-performance environment, you want the leader to have a calming effect on his team which Rohit brings to the table with ease – when Rohit is at the helm, players automatically tend to perform better knowing their captain has their backs.
Every time one speaks to team members and just mentions Rohit’s name you will see a smile on their faces, a smile which you would have for your best buddy – that’s the relatable image he has created for himself, he is the team’s go-to guy! This is what helps Rohit marshall his resources well because the boys have complete trust. Rohit is as transparent as it could get. The players know there is nothing hidden about him, what you see is what you get.
Over the years, Rohit Sharma has shut out the outside noise and only focused on the job at hand after taking over the reins from Virat Kohli last week. The Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) decision to make Rohit the white-ball captain angered Virat Kohli’s fans but the selectors did not want to have two different players leading the T20I and ODI teams.