Cricket News: Rohit Sharma Needs To Get His Tactics, Choices Right For India's Sake

With only two months left for the 2023 Men’s ODI World Cup to begin, scores of Indian fans will be dreaming again to see the Rohit Sharma-led side ending a ten-year wait for lifting a major trophy on home soil on November 19. The dream of lifting a major trophy has been a long-standing dream for India, who have faltered at every step in the quest for it since winning the 2013 Champions Trophy in England, with Rohit being a part of it. But it is easier said than done, considering their abysmal record in ICC events till now.

For starters, India’s strongest playing eleven is a jigsaw puzzle that is far away from being sorted out. With a few of their first-choice players and potential World Cup pivotal figures still recovering from injuries as well as confusion from experiments with the middle-order in the West Indies, India doesn’t have the aura of a championship winning side.  

On October 8, when India play their first 2023 World Cup group match against Australia in Chennai, all eyes will be on Rohit – as the captain and leading the charge in batting. The significance of Rohit leading India in a home World Cup will not be lost on him.

In 2011, when India won the World Cup on home soil after MS Dhoni smashed the most unforgettable six in cricketing history on April 2, Rohit was not in the squad. Two months before it, he was left out of the World Cup owing to poor form in the lead-up to the competition.

By then, Rohit was touted to be the next-gen leader of India’s batting and had won the 2007 T20 World Cup too as a 20-year-old youngster. But his form meant that Virat Kohli, who debuted in ODIs after him, was picked on the back of a stellar show in the format.

That 2011 non-selection flicked a switch in Rohit, who would then become an indispensable part of India’s ODI unit. In 2023, where he averages 47.87 in the format with a hundred and two fifties, Rohit will be opening the batting and would be leading India, exactly ten years after being entrusted with the Mumbai Indians captaincy, starting the path for him to be a five-time IPL winning captain.

Since February 2022, when Rohit succeeded Kohli as India’s full-time captain, many believed the level of success he’s achieved with Mumbai and occasionally as the national side stand-in captain would come out consistently in the role. Rohit’s ability to focus on the moment, nurturing the youngsters and his smart on-field tactics, were highlighted as his natural leadership qualities, which unfortunately hasn’t given India an ICC trophy.  

India’s issues in playing T20Is and lack of clarity in roles were exposed yet again when a modern, progressive England gave them a ten-wicket thrashing in the T20 World Cup semi-final in Australia. They would go on to lose the World Test Championship final to Australia, with their batting and decision to leave out top-ranked bowler Ravichandran Ashwin coming under immense scrutiny.

Now, Rohit faces the prospect of leading India to success in a world title, something which has eluded the country. In the 2019 ODI World Cup, Rohit finished as the tournament's leading run-getter with five centuries, but India bowed out of the competition in the semi-final.

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If all pieces of the puzzle fall in place and Rohit brings out his best as an opener and leader in all days of India’s matches in the 2023 World Cup, the fulfilment of the dream to win the tournament on November 19 can become one of the most defining moments of his cricketing career.