Explained: Why it makes sense to have Rohit Sharma as India captain for T20 World Cup 2024
BCCI secretary Jay Shah was uber confident when he declared that India will be winning the T20 World Cup 2024 under Rohit Sharma’s captaincy in Barbados (the venue of the final) this year.
“Rohit Sharma ke kaptaani main hum 2024 main zaroor Bharat ka jhanda gadenge (we will hoist India’s flag in Barbados under Rohit Sharma’s captaincy in 2024,” he declared during a BCCI event on Wednesday at Rajkot.
The explosive announcement has brought an end to the speculations over who will be India’s captain at the T20 World Cup 2024. With Rohit Sharma not playing T20Is after India’s exit from the T20 World Cup 2022 following a semi-final defeat and Hardik Pandya leading Men in Blue in the subsequent matches, it was speculated that the latter will lead the country in the ICC event which starts on 1 June 2024.
Despite Rohit indicating in August 2023 that he will be back in T20Is after the 2023 ODI World Cup, it was felt in multiple circles that Pandya would be a better choice to captain India. Partly because Hardik has recently raised his profile by guiding Gujarat Titans to IPL 2022 title in their first season and taking them to the final in the 2023 edition and partly because of Rohit’s struggles in the T20 format.
Rohit’s recent batting numbers in T20s
In the 2022 T20 World Cup semi-final, which India lost under Rohit’s captaincy, the skipper could only manage 27 off 28 as India batted first and ended up with a poor score of 168/6. This was overhauled by an aggressive England in just 16 overs.
It was felt India were playing outdated cricket under Rohit who himself was struggling to adjust to the pace of the game in T20 cricket. In last two seasons of IPL since 2022, in 30 matches, he has scored just 600 runs at an average of 20 and strike rate of 126.49.
Still, BCCI has decided to stick with Rohit as the captain for the 2024 T20 World Cup which all things considered is probably the best decision, India could have taken.
Why? We explain how it makes sense to continue with Rohit Sharma.
Why Rohit over Pandya
There are two major reasons behind BCCI wanting Rohit to continue as India captain in T20Is — his batting renaissance and Hardik Pandya struggling with injuries.
