Rohit Sharma is gearing up to lead the Indian Cricket Team in the upcoming World Cup 2023. But according to Gautam Gambhir, the reason behind Rohit Sharma’s rise is another former captain- MS Dhoni.
On Tuesday in Colombo, Rohit Sharma, India’s captain and opener, achieved the milestone of 10,000 runs in One Day Internationals (ODI) cricket. He became the sixth Indian batsman and the 15th overall to achieve this milestone.
Rohit’s impressive 53-run innings, consisting of 48 balls, marked his second consecutive half-century in Asia Cup 2023 Super 4 match.
Rohit Sharma’s career began with a considerable amount of difficulty. He was the fourth Indian to reach the milestone of 2000 ODI runs. However, his progress has been remarkable, as he has now become the second fastest in the world to reach 10,000 ODIs.
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Gambhir’s rare praise for Dhoni
And according to Gautam Gambhir, this turnaround was made possible by MS Dhoni who backed Rohit even after a string of bad scores.
“Scoring 10,000 runs was not easy for him. Saw many ups and downs. Having seen that phase, Rohit, as a captain, will back youngsters who go through a difficult period. Rohit Sharma is Rohit Sharma today because of MS Dhoni,” Gambhir said on Star Sports.
“MS backed him continuously in his initial struggling phase. If he wants to leave a legacy behind, not in terms of runs but as a captain, a lot will depend on how he backs the young players. It will be interesting to see how he grooms the upcoming players,” he added.
Gambhir then went on to recall the first time he spotted Rohit Sharma.
“Rohit was playing against my team in a domestic match and my team score was 350 and Rohit came at no.5 and scored 130 runs and made his team win the match from difficult conditions. I asked Wasim Jaffer who is this guy, from that day I knew that this guy is special,” he recalled.