Despite riding a victory juggernaut that crushed big-shot teams like New Zealand, England and West Indies recently, India captain Virat Kohli will have to share the limelight with bygone hero Rohit Sharma, who will be seen in vice-captaincy role in the first ODI against Sri Lanka at Dambulla on Friday.
“First, it is a huge honour to be appointed as the vice-captain. Ten years ago, I was only thinking of playing for India. Being the vice-captain now feels really good,” Rohit said, with a lump in his throat, after being appointed the vice to Virat.
Although he has never captained the national side, the 30-year-old batsman from Maharashtra led Mumbai Indians (MI) to three Indian Premier League (IPL) titles.
“It’s a kind of honour that whenever the opportunity comes, the first one-dayer when we come on August 20, there will be some sort of role that I will need to play and I am looking forward to it,” he added.
In the absence of MS Dhoni and Kohli, who led India in recent past, players like Ajinkya Rahane and Suresh Raina got a chance to captain the men-in-blue, but the underrated cricketer Rohit was still somewhere seeking one big chance.
Rohit made his international debut in an ODI in June 2007, playing against minnows Ireland at Belfast. He couldn’t get a chance to bat in that match; the next match against South Africa saw him losing his wicket for mere eight runs.
The right-hander made his big break in ODIs with an impressive half-ton he smashed against Pakistan in Jaipur in November 2007.
So far, he has scored 31 half-centuries and 11 tons for India, having played 158 ODI matches. With 5435 ODI runs in his kitty, Rohit averages 42.46 runs per match. His ODI-best knock of 264 runs came against Sri Lanka in Kolkata in 2014. Going forward, the glorious moment changed the way people look at him.
Sri Lanka, after getting wounded with the Test series defeat (3-0), must be working on a separate strategy to handle the ‘Hit-man’ – Rohit Sharma.