CHENNAI: Since eventual champions England drubbed India by 10 wickets in the T20 World Cup semifinal on November 10 last year, Rohit Sharma has not featured in the T20Is for the Men in Blue. He has played 36 international matches after the semifinal exit to date including seven Tests and 29 ODIs.
As far as the shortest format is concerned, Rohit might not have worn the blue Indian jersey for more than a year but he donned the MI blue and gold colours representing the five-time champions in all 16 matches in the 2023 edition as they failed to reach the final losing the Qualifier 2 to Gujarat Titans.
It might not change in the 2024 season with the only exception being his role. After 10 successful seasons as the captain, Rohit once again will turn up for the team but this time as a specialist batter as he did way back in 2011 and 2012. He was elevated to the role after Australian great Ricky Ponting stepped down midway through the 2013 season. The move paid dividends immediately as the joint-most successful franchise in IPL history won their maiden title. The 36-year-old from Mumbai continued to lead the team with aplomb as the team bagged a title each in 2015, 2017, 2019, and 2020.
With the franchise making the big announcement of replacing their most successful captain with Hardik Pandya on Friday, Rohit's era came to an end. The development also sent both cricket pundits and critics on overdrive speculating about his future as India's captain, especially with the T20 World Cup scheduled in June.
However, those in the know of things feel MI's decision is unlikely to have any bearing on Rohit's role as India's captain in the T20Is. The BCCI might have started grooming Hardik as the leader in the format back in June 2022 when Rohit along with other regulars were unavailable for the two-match T20I tour of Ireland because of the Test scheduled in Edgbaston. But the 36-year-old batter from Mumbai returned for the 5-match tour of West Indies and USA next month. Hardik did captain the team but only in the last match when Rohit was rested as India had won the series by then.
It was only after the T20 World Cup last year, that Hardik started captaining the T20 side regularly. India played 25 T20Is since then with the Gujarat cricketer captaining in 16 of them. He was rested for the series against Ireland this year as Jasprit Bumrah, returning to competitive cricket after 10 months, led the side in August. An ankle injury during the 2023 ODI World Cup in India meant Hardik had to miss a five-match T20I series against Australia and the recently concluded three-T20I series against South Africa.
India is scheduled to play a three-match T20I series against visiting Afghanistan next month, their last international assignment in the shortest format before the World Cup but it will be the 2024 IPL that probably will decide the team composition for the marquee event. What makes Rohit's case stronger is his batting in the last year. In the 29 ODIs he had played in the period, he scored 1333 runs with a strike rate of 117.86, considerably higher than his career SR of 91.97. It was Rohit, who mostly gave India a prolific start during the ODI World Cup laying a solid foundation for batters to follow.
And who knows, the new role will turn into a blessing in disguise for Rohit. Relieved of the captaincy burden, Rohit may set the stage on fire as he used to do when he made his India debut in white ball cricket more than 16 years ago.
