India’s former fielding coach R Sridhar recently revealed that it was the masterclass of former skipper, MS Dhoni that helped India win the 2013 Champions Trophy. Sridhar recalled how Dhoni brought out the best version of Rohit Sharma by asking the latter to open the innings in that tournament and that move has been still yielding rich dividends.

Despite getting off to a sloppy start in his earlier days, Rohit Sharma reached his full potential by improving more and more with time. Riding on his impressive show across formats, the 35-year-old became India’s full-time T20I captain last year in November and later on took charge in the other two formats as well. His next big stern test will be in Australia later this year when India will be competing with the best at the T20 World Cup.

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But Rohit’s best version began to unfold when he batted as an opener for Team India. He started his career as a middle-order batter but since India’s title-winning 2013 Champions Trophy campaign, he has been continuing to bat at the top. R Sridhar, India’s then-fielding coach, in a recent chat with Cricket.com, revealed the tactical move was made by none other than India’s former flamboyant skipper MS Dhoni.

R Sridhar explained, “There was one decision made by Dhoni in the 2013 Champions Trophy to send Rohit to open. Dinesh (Karthik) was batting so well in the practice games but Rohit had to play… so the management then, mostly captain Dhoni, found a spot for Rohit at the top of the order. That was a brilliant move.”

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So far, Rohit has played 45 Tests, 233 ODIs, and 131 T20Is for India. In all, he has aggregated 15,967 (3,137 in Tests, 9,376 in ODIs, and 3,454 in T20Is) runs, with 41 international centuries.