Indian legend Sunil Gavaskar reckons Rohit Sharma is underrated as captain in the IPL and he doesn’t get enough credit for his astute leadership as MS Dhoni gets. Rohit is the most successful captain in IPL history with five titles under his belt while Dhoni has won four crowns with CSK.
Meanwhile, Rohit has once again led Mumbai Indians with aplomb in the ongoing IPL 2023. Mumbai got off to a slow start in the season but Rohit was able to turn the tables as he got the best out of his players. In fact, Mumbai has a weak bowling line-up in the absence of Jasprit Bumrah and Jofra Archer but Rohit has been able to get the desired results.
Gavaskar hailed Rohit for getting the best out of Akash Madhwal, who returned with impressive figures of 5-5 in the Eliminator against LSG. Akash dismissed Ayush Badoni from over the wicket whereas he got the big wicket of Nicholas Pooran while bowling round the wicket and the Little Master feels the skipper deserves a lot of credit for plotting the dismissal.
“Of course, he is underrated. The man has won 5 titles for Mumbai Indians. Let me give you an example. Maddhwal got Ayush Badoni, bowling over the wicket. He then went round the wicket to the left-hander Nicholas Pooran,” Gavaskar told India Today.
“Not a lot of bowlers necessarily do that because if they get their rhythm going bowling over the wicket, they will stick to over the wicket even it’s a left-hander, trying to leave te left-hander. But he went around the wicket and produced an absolute gem of a delivery and got the man out.
“If that had been CSK and Dhoni was the captain. Everybody would have said ‘Dhoni plotted Nicholas Pooran’s dismissal. This is what happens to a great extend. There is also a little bit of hype, things sometimes work out,” he added.
On the other hand, Rohit Sharma and the team management decided to use Nehal Wadhera as an impact substitute in the first innings against LSG. Wadhera justified his selection as he played a crucial cameo of 12-ball 23. In fact, it has been noticed that teams batting first generally use the impact player as a bowler in the second innings but Rohit and Co. went against the norm to get crucial runs in the end.
“What I am saying is Rohit Sharma did not get the credit for telling Madhwal to bowl round the wicket,” Gavaskar said.
“The captaincy situation as well. Remember, Nehal Wadhera was used as an impact player batting first. Teams generally don’t use batters as Impact Player when they are batting first. But Rohit used Nehwal when MI were batting first against LSG. So please give him credit for that as well.”
Mumbai Indians will face Gujarat Titans in Qualifier 2 in Ahmedabad on Friday, May 26.
