Former India left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha has revealed how the former Australian legend Adam Gilchrist had spotted the captaincy qualities in a young Rohit Sharma when he had just started to play at the international level. Ojha has shared that after Rohit Sharma has been appointed as India’s ODI captain on Wednesday.
However, the swashbuckling India opener will take over the responsibility from Virat Kohli in the upcoming series in South Africa in January next year. He has already taken the reins of the T20 format from Kohli after the T20 World Cup. India will take on South Africa in three ODIs in South Africa. Apart from the limited-overs squad, Rohit Sharma has been named as the vice-captain in the longer format also, replacing Ajinkya Rahane, who has been struggling with the bat in recent times.
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Ojha has shared that Rohit Sharma was not considered as a captain when he made his debut for India but he slowly started to gain confidence when he started playing in the Indian Premier League franchise Deccan Chargers and due to the persistence, former Australia player Adam Gilchrist believed he could be a captain too. Notably, he was a key part of the IPL franchise and led the team to the IPL title in 2009 as well.
“When Rohit first came into the Mumbai side, he was never projected as a leader. Slowly things started to change when he was put in the core group of the Deccan Chargers. Adam Gilchrist wanted Rohit Sharma to be the vice-captain,” Pragyan Ojha said on Cricbuzz Live.
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“It had just maybe been two years that he had started playing international cricket but when he used to give feedbacks about certain players or give a certain game plan then the team management started to see the leadership qualities in him. Discussions had started within the Deccan Chargers team that if anyone was going to replace Gilchrist, it can be Rohit. People’s perspective about Rohit started to change from then that he is not only a capable batter but also can be a captain in future,” Pragyan Ojha concluded.
