The former Indian left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha reckons that the captaincy style of Rohit Sharma is a bit like MS Dhoni in the way he uses the bowlers and the kind of fields he gives to the bowlers.
Rohit Sharma yesterday became the first Indian captain after MS Dhoni to win a bilateral ODI series in England. Overall only three Indian captains in history have won a bilateral ODI series in England. Apart from Rohit and Dhoni, the third one is Mohammed Azharuddin.
India has won an ODI trophy in England under the former captain and current BCCI president Sourav Ganguly as well, but that was a triangular ODI tournament and not a bilateral ODI series.
Pragyan Ojha, when he was asked on Cricbuzz about the captaincy of Rohit Sharma and if it’s similar to MS Dhoni, Ojha admitted that he finds it a bit similar to Dhoni because Rohit, just like Dhoni, gives clear messages to his bowlers and backs his bowlers as well.
According to Pragyan Ojha, a captain doesn’t influence the batsmen a lot because when a batsman goes out there to bat, he is all on his own and he has to find a way for himself.
But, a captain does influence the performance of the bowlers because if he doesn’t use the bowlers at the best possible time, doesn’t give the bowlers the rights fields, and doesn’t back the bowlers, then even good bowlers won’t look that impressive.
Hardik Pandya has also said Rohit Sharma has handled him well: Pragyan Ojha
Ojha also referred to the recent statement of the Indian allrounder Hardik Pandya, where Hardik said that Rohit knows exactly when to bowl him and when not to bowl him and he has handled him very, very well since his comeback to the team.
Ojha insisted when the players themselves are giving such statements, it clearly means the players are receiving a lot of backing from the captain.
