Mumbai Indians got it, when will India get it?; Same fate as Kohli for Rohit?

‘I am disappointed. But, I will come back’ – these are the words of Rohit Sharma on the social media after being left out of the Indian team for the 2011 ODI World Cup. After 12 years, ‘Rohit Gatha’ is reaching the glory of being the captain who took the Indian team to the finals in the World Cup held on the same soil. It was every Indian’s dream to win the third world title through Rohit. The team reached the finals with an unbeaten run, but lost their footing in the finals. Hitman also had an anti-climax, as sometimes happens in superhit movies.

Rohit was part of the Indian team that won the 2007 Twenty20 World Cup. In the 2015 team, Rohit was placed in the role of opener. He became the vice-captain of the 2019 World Cup team. In his third ODI World Cup in 2023, he captained the team to the final. Rohit’s ‘masterstroke’ like raising the strike rate in a beautiful innings. But the sting of this World Cup loss is that one of India’s all-time greats may have to end his career with the heartbreak of not even an ODI World Cup to his name.

∙ Mumbai Indians got it, India?

Crowns add to the luster of any captain’s cap. In the Indian Premier League (IPL), Rohit is the captain of Mumbai Indians who won the title in the same season. Later, Mumbai won four more titles under Rohit’s captaincy. This achievement is the main reason why Rohit, who is senior to Kohli, was considered for the captaincy of the Indian team when Kohli stepped down.

If the BCCI was looking at a player capable of leading the team for a long time like MS Dhoni and Kohli, then thirty-four-year-old Rohit would not have been considered for that role. There were rumors that KL Rahul or Rishabh Pant or even Jasprit Bumrah would be the captain. But since two World Cups are coming up next to each other, it is not appropriate to make someone with less experience as the captain and Rohit will be the backbone of the Indian team.

Rohit, who has experience leading India in Kohli’s absence, was qualified to lead the national team by leading Mumbai Indians to 5 titles in the IPL. There are two teams in the IPL that have won five titles. Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings. The MS Dhoni-led Chennai team has won the IPL title for the 2023 season along with the record of Rohit and his team. But after Dhoni, Rohit, who took the Indian team to the World Cup final, went all the way to win the title, maybe it was just a cruel joke of time.

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Rohit held the record of being the oldest captain to lead India in the World Cup when he started against Australia in the first match of the 2023 ODI World Cup. At the age of 36 years and 161 days, Rohit broke the record of 36 years and 124 days held by Mohammad Azharuddin, who led India in the 1999 World Cup. After 41 days after losing to the same Australia in the final and returning without a trophy, the only question left is how long Rohit will be seen as the ‘reason’ of the Indian cricket family.

∙ The Curse of the Unfinished Cup

After the 2011 World Cup title, India won only one ICC title in 12 years. ICC Champions Trophy in 2013. India wanted to end the 10-year ICC title curse through Rohit. Rohit, who won the IPL title in his first season as the captain, fans believed that he would bring the world title to India before completing two years of taking over as India’s ODI captain. Rohit will replace Virat Kohli as India’s ODI captain in December 2021.

Between the 2013 Champions Trophy and the 2023 ODI World Cup, India participated in 9 ICC tournaments. 2014 T20 World Cup, 2015 ODI World Cup, 2016 T20 World Cup, 2017 Champions Trophy, 2019 ODI World Cup, 2021 T20 World Cup, 2021 Test Championship Final, 2022 T20 World Cup and 2023 Test Championship Final. India could not win even one of them. The ten-year curse was thought to be over after cheating in the 10th ICC tournament, but it broke.

The 2022 Twenty20 World Cup and the 2023 Test Championship final are the ICC tournaments in which India has participated under the leadership of Rohit. While India lost to England in the semi-finals of the World Cup, they lost to Australia in the final of the Test Championship. India also lost to Australia in the ODI World Cup final. The Asia Cup title won just before the World Cup is the only major trophy for India to Rohit’s credit.

∙ Same fate

When India won the World Cup under Rohit, former captain Virat Kohli was named player of the tournament. What cricket fan doesn’t want such a ‘combo’? Kohli has been criticized for not winning a single ICC title as captain. When that title curse ends with Rohit, if Virat Kohli joins in to play a crucial role, it will have the charm of Rohit Sharma’s spontaneous pull shot. But time again gave Hitman a ‘no ball’ where there was no chance for even a free hit. Kohli named Player of the Tournament; But India has no crown.

However, this World Cup was a backlash for those who accused him of colluding with Kohli and that the captaincy was cheated from him. The World Cup arenas witnessed many moments of mutual trust between the captain and the ex-captain. The fans saw Rohit, who was breaking the courage that Kohli would come out, and Kohli, who got the freedom to swing the bat in a spontaneous style due to the strength of Rohit’s increased run rate.

After the failure of the 2021 Twenty20 World Cup, news came out about the infighting in the Indian cricket team. In the last ten years, it was the only ICC tournament in which India did not get a cup, without even entering the semi-finals. Its ripples shook the Indian team for a long time. The most important of which is the news that Virat Kohli, who was the captain at that time, and Rohit Sharma, who was the vice-captain, did not have much fun.

After the announcement of the Indian team for the Twenty20 World Cup, Kohli announced that he will step down as captain after the World Cup. Later, he stepped down as the captain of IPL Royal Challengers Bangalore. After the World Cup, Kohli was removed from the ODI captaincy. Kohli resigned himself as Test captain soon after. With this, there were reports that the rift between Kohli and Rohit was severe. There was a campaign that Rohit would be absent from the Test team captained by Kohli due to injury and Kohli applied for leave to stay away from the ODI team captained by Rohit. It was after this that Kohli stepped down as Test team captain.

But later it was seen that under Rohit, Kohli entered the field with more energy than usual. After 2019, Kohli was in the worst form of his career for three years. But thanks to the faith reposed in him by captain Rohit Sharma, Kohli’s performance began to change significantly towards the end of 2022. In September 2022, the player ended a long century drought by scoring his first Twenty20 century in his career against Afghanistan. In the match against Bangladesh in December, Kohli scored 113 runs off 91 balls and made a spectacular comeback in ODIs as well. This year Kohli has been in form in all three formats after scoring a century against Australia.

Kohli has scored six ODI centuries in the calendar year 2023. Kohli had achieved this feat in 2017 and 2018 as well. Kohli became the first player to achieve 6 ODI centuries in a calendar year 3 times. Finally, Rohit won the Player of the Tournament award in the ODI World Cup. As a captain, Rohit’s ability to move the team forward with unity is immense. The biggest example of that is the Rohit-Kohli chemistry. But will Kohli’s fate of no ICC title follow Rohit? Let’s wait for future ‘innings’.