In the absence of the regular skipper Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma led India as captain to their 7th Asia Cup title on Friday with a victory over Bangladesh in the final. The Indian head coach Ravi Shastri was quick to point out Sharma’s ability to remain calm on the field at the press conference.
Talking about the same during the post-match press conference, Sharma said that he learned from former captain MS Dhoni on how to maintain calm in tense situations and has imbibed similar qualities in himself. “Whatever I have seen of him (Dhoni) leading the side for all these years, he never panicked, took time while taking decisions. There are those similarities in me too. I also try to first think and then react. Yes, 50-over cricket gives you time but still you need to take time as well. I have learned this from seeing him, we have played for so many years under his captaincy.”
Describing it further, Rohit added that Dhoni is always ready to pitch in with advice on the field. He always keeps on learning from MS as the latter has been such a great captain.
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On being questioned whether he is ready to take on the captaincy role full-time, Sharma, who has won three IPL trophies as captain of the Mumbai Indians (MI), and also won the Nidahas T20 trophy back in March, replied that he will be up for the task whenever the opportunity comes his way. Sharma also revealed that the players are not dropped after one bad performance. He said that he wanted to give each of the players an assurance that they will be playing all the games son that everybody gets a fair run and play more games.
Talking about the tournament, Sharma said that his team has done nothing wrong almost ticked all the boxes. He explained, “I understand the dynamics of this team, how we play our cricket and how we want to go forward as a team. I think in this tournament we have ticked all the boxes. Numbers four and six need to get more games as the World Cup comes closer. The next few tournaments, that will be ideal for us to judge as management where they stand as players.”
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Rohit Sharma also felt that the youngsters got acclimatized with the quicker than expected. He said, “It wasn’t easy for the boys to adopt because they had come from England. It was very important to get used to the conditions. But I think overall, our preparation for this tournament was good. Seven-eight guys came here early while the other boys from England landed here a day before the tournament. I think this was a big challenge for us. The conditions here were quite slow and there was help for the slow bowlers,” Sharma added.
India defeated Bangladesh by three wickets in a thrilling final that went right down to the final ball of the match.
