“One of the best captains alongside Dhoni…”: Ravi Shastri on Rohit Sharma

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], August 1 (ANI): Former Indian all-rounder and head coach Ravi Shastri applauded Indian skipper Rohit Sharma, calling him one of India’s best captains alongside MS Dhoni.

Rohit’s stint as India’s T20I skipper was a memorable one. He overtook Dhoni as the most successful T20I captain with 49 wins in 62 matches. Dhoni had 41 victories from 72 games. Also to top it off, he led India to the ICC T20 World Cup title after a thrilling win in the final against South Africa at Barbados, ending India’s ICC trophy drought of 11 years.

Before this, he had led India to a runners-up spot in the ICC Cricket World Cup at home last year, where they lost to Australia after a dominant 10-match win streak and also the ICC World Test Championship runners-up spot against Australia. Men in Blue also won the 2023 Asia Cup under Rohit’s captaincy.

Shastri places the two on equal footing, calling Rohit ‘one of the best captains ever alongside Dhoni’ with both showing great tactical acumen in white-ball cricket.

“As a tactician, let us not forget that he has been an outstanding guy. He will go down as one of the best captains ever alongside Dhoni,” Shastri said on the latest episode of The ICC Review.

“If you ask me who’s better, I would say both are on par when it comes to tactics in the white-ball game. I cannot pay a bigger compliment to Rohit than that because you know what MS has done and the titles he has won,” he added.

Rohit captained India to their first T20 World Cup title since 2007 in Barbados in June, where India were unbeaten in the whole campaign. They won eight out of their nine matches with one ending without a result.

“Rohit is not far behind and I thought tactically he was just outstanding in this year’s (T20) World Cup,” Shastri continued.

“Just the calmness, the ability to get a (Jasprit) Bumrah or a (Hardik) Pandya, or even an Axar Patel at just the right time when needed was great to see,” he added.

India produced a strong comeback in the T20 World Cup final against South Africa, defending 30 runs in 30 balls with the Proteas still having six wickets in hand. Jasprit Bumrah’s (2/18) two tight overs, Hardik Pandya’s (3/20) important wickets, and Suryakumar Yadav’s sensational catch of David Miller all orchestrated under Rohit’s captaincy secured them their second title after successfully defending a target of 177 runs set thanks to fine knocks from Virat Kohli (76) and Axar Patel (47).