Veteran spinner Ravichandran Ashwin shared his experience of playing under Rohit Sharma’s captaincy and pointed out how the Indian skipper prepared ahead of every series. Rohit took over the white ball captaincy charge of the Indian team from Virat Kohli after the 2021 T20 World Cup, and a couple of months later, he was also named Test skipper. He has taken Indian cricket to great heights by leading them to a T20 World Cup triumph earlier this year. Under his captaincy, India also played in the finals of the WTC and ODI World Cup last year.
BCCI secretary Jay Shah, who will take over the position of ICC chairman in December, has confirmed that Rohit will lead the Indian team in Champions Trophy 2025 and the ongoing WTC cycle.
Ashwin, who has been one of the key players in Rohit’s Test side, opened up about what makes the Indian star a successful captain and how he planned things before the matches.
“If there is any big match or series coming up, Rohit sits with the analytics team and coach and prepares for it, like what’s the weakness of a particular batsman, what’s the plan of a bowler. That’s his strength but he always keeps the environment of the team light and backs the players. If he selects a player in the XI, he backs them 100%. I have played most of my career with these three captains,” Ashwin said on Vimal Kumar’s YouTube channel.
Rohit Sharma makes an effort to keep atmosphere light
Talking about the atmosphere in the camp under Rohit’s captaincy, Ashwin said that the 37-year-old opening batter makes an effort to keep the environment light in the team.
“2-3 things are nice about Rohit’s captaincy. He always keep the environment of the team light. He makes an effort to keep it light,” he added.
Ashwin also played a lot of cricket under MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli’s leadership but he feels Rohit works more on the tactical aspect to get prepared for every challenge in the match.
“And he stays very balanced and tactically he is strong. Both Dhoni and Virat were also tactically strong but Rohit works more on the tactics,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ashwin continues to hold the top spot among bowlers in ICC’s latest rankings, while pacer Jasprit Bumrah and left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja have maintained their third and seventh spots, respectively.
The ace spinner is expected to return to the Indian jersey with the two-match Test series against Bangladesh starting September 19.
