All posts tagged: rohit sharma captaincy

How Rohit Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav made India and T20 soulmates to trigger a grand transformation

How Rohit Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav made India and T20 soulmates to trigger a grand transformation

Published by Webster

5 min readUpdated: Feb 6, 2026 01:57 PM IST There was a delightful moment on Pakistani cyberworld the other day. On the YouTube channel Game Plan, the host rattled through the names in India’s batting lineup, ending with an almost rhetorical question: ‘Har ek banda akela match jita sakta hai, inke khilaaf, plan kya ho sakta hai?’ (Each one of them can win a game on their own — what can be the plan against them?) Former Pakistan batsman Basit Ali cupped his palms skyward and smiled: ‘Dua kar sakte hain’ (We can pray!). For years leading up to the last T20 World Cup in the USA and West Indies, India seemed to have forgotten they owned the IPL. The disconnect was glaring. Their approach to the shortest format felt outdated, particularly in batting — as if they were rolling along without a proper plan. In some ways, they resembled that first Royal Challengers Bangalore side that didn’t quite know what to do with T20 cricket. Even in the 2024 edition they won, India were almost …

‘He’s still a lot better than Shubman Gill’: Ex-India batter says Rohit Sharma must be reappointed ODI captain | Cricket News

‘He’s still a lot better than Shubman Gill’: Ex-India batter says Rohit Sharma must be reappointed ODI captain | Cricket News

Published by Webster

Rohit Sharma may not have had the best out of outings with the bat during India’s embarrassing home ODI series defeat against New Zealand last week, but his former national teammate, Manoj Tiwary, has urged that the 38-year-old must be reappointed as the skipper of the side. For the first time in over three decades, India lost a home ODI series against New Zealand under Shubman Gill, who has endured a tough initiation as captain in the format. Under Gill, India lost their first series in Australia 2-1 in October, before the harrowing home defeat. In December, India defeated South Africa 2-1 at home, but Gill missed the series due to an injury, handing over the reins to KL Rahul. With Gill’s immediate results unyielding in the format, Tiwary has questioned why the team management and the selectors had to move on from Rohit only months after he had spearheaded the Men in Blue to the Champions Trophy crown last year over New Zealand. “What was the need to remove Rohit Sharma from the captaincy? …

How Kuldeep Yadav’s ‘so-bad-that-it’s-good’ ball finally tamed the devastating Marco Jansen | Cricket News

How Kuldeep Yadav’s ‘so-bad-that-it’s-good’ ball finally tamed the devastating Marco Jansen | Cricket News

Published by Webster

With his freakishly long limbs, the 6-foot-7 Marco Jansen has a hitting arc that covers almost one-fourth of the pitch – give or take a few inches. With just one giant stride up forward and the swing of the bat held by his unending arms, the South African all-rounder can even reach the balls pitched in the back-of-the-length zone or further up the track. Unlike other batsmen, he doesn’t need to risk charging out of the crease and go searching for the ball and worry about getting stumped. In a match with many monumental batting efforts, Marco’s 39-ball 70 with 3 sixes – knock was the most devastating innings. After his stupendous Test success on this tour, Marco, from the nation with a rich tradition of all-rounders, showcased his game-changing ability with both bat and the white-ball at Ranchi. His cat-and-mouse ‘pursuit and evasion’ scrum with India’s star spinner Kuldeep Yadav was the feature duel of the game’s second-half. But for that one false move late in the game, that split-second moment of misjudgment, Marco …

Knocks that encapsulated Rohit Sharma’s Test career | Cricket News

Knocks that encapsulated Rohit Sharma’s Test career | Cricket News

Published by Webster

In the list of India’s highest run-getters in Tests, Rohit Sharma occupies the 16th spot – with 4,301 runs in 110 outings, an average of 40.57 and 12 hundreds. The numbers aptly capture his place among the country’s best willow-wielders. Rohit was a good batsman with great moments in Tests. But in view of his undisputed gifts, the statistics are bound to imply that his talents never soared fully in the longest version. Even more fascinating is the company of the 4,000-ers from his country — that bracket where a batsman is not good enough to be counted among the greats yet superior to most of those to have worn Test stripes. At the upper end is MS Dhoni (4,867), whose batting in the five-day format was acquired and laborious; then comes Mohinder Amarnath, the self-admittedly less-gifted batsman than his brothers but one who overcame technical glitches with toughness of mind. Rohit does share some of his traits, his game was predetermined to fail in England, and he did on his maiden tour to those …

How Australia ate up the career of another Indian batting veteran

How Australia ate up the career of another Indian batting veteran

Published by Webster

Somehow, Australia has had this effect on Indian batting careers. Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman lost their aura in the 2012 series down under, and both retired not long after. Sachin Tendulkar too didn’t have a good series, losing his aura a touch, and from then on it was a matter of time when he would call it a day. Now, it’s the turn of Rohit Sharma who couldn’t survive the nightmarish tour of Australia earlier this year, and has now retired from Tests after the selectors chose to move past him for Test captaincy. But unlike those three, Rohit’s Test career never reached the heights it was expected to when a fresh-faced youngster lit up domestic cricket with his exquisite batting style that had even the hard-to-please, old-school cricketers purring in delight. But things didn’t go his way. Neither the end – he averaged little over 6 in Australia and 15 in the home series against New Zealand – nor the start, where he struggled to cement his spot, was kind on him. For …

A look at cricketer’s numbers for India in Tests

A look at cricketer’s numbers for India in Tests

Published by Webster

Rohit Sharma announced his retirement from Test cricket on Wednesday, bringing the curtains down on a rollercoaster career in the red-ball format. In 2021, Rohit became the 35th test captain of India as he took over following Virat Kohli’s resignation. His first assignment was a two-match series against Sri Lanka. He led India to the World Test Championship final in the 2021/23 cycle, but the team lost to Australia in the title clash. Here’s a statistical breakdown of Rohit Sharma’s Test career: Rohit Sharma’s Test career spanned over 12 years after he made his debut in 2013 against West Indies scoring 177, second second-highest score by an Indian debutant. Despite playing for 12 years, Rohit played only 67 test matches having a topsy-turvy career. Starting off as a middle order batter, Rohit had an inconsistent run in the first half of his career, i.e. 2013-2019. His red-ball career changed in 2019 when he was promoted as an opener against South Africa, eventually becoming the captain in 2021. Story continues below this ad 67: Rohit Sharma …

A coincidence between MS Dhoni and Rohit Sharma’s retirement announcements

A coincidence between MS Dhoni and Rohit Sharma’s retirement announcements

Published by Webster

On one fine August evening, five years back, MS Dhoni announced his international retirement that caught the cricketing world by surprise. “Thanks a lot for ur love and support throughout from 1929 hrs consider me as Retired,” is what his social media message read, accompanied by a video of moments from his career. It, as the slang goes, broke the internet. On Wednesday evening, at almost the exact time (give or take a few seconds), Rohit Sharma posted a story on his Instagram account. As of approximately 1929 hrs, he is no longer a Test cricketer for India as he called time on his red-ball career. It was a coincidence that two of India’s greatest captains timed their announcements to almost exactly the same time. //www.instagram.com/embed.js “Hello everyone I would just like to share that I am retiring from Test cricket. It’s been an absolute honour to represent my country in whites. Thank you for all the love and support over the years,” Rohit said with a photo of the Team India Test cap. (LEFT) …

Rohit Sharma Retirement News: Rohit Sharma announces retirement from Test cricket; will continue to play for India in ODIs

Rohit Sharma Retirement News: Rohit Sharma announces retirement from Test cricket; will continue to play for India in ODIs

Published by Webster

Rohit Sharma announces retirement: Rohit Sharma has announced his retirement from Test cricket on a day it was revealed by The Indian Express that he would not be captaining the Indian cricket team for the England series. “Hello everyone I would just like to share that I am retiring from Test cricket. It’s been an absolute honour to represent my country in whites. Thank you for all the love and support over the years,” Rohit said with a photo of the Team India Test cap on his Instagram Story. (LEFT) Rohit Sharma announced his retirement through his Instagram Stories; (RIGHT) Rohit seen during India’s tour of Australia. (PHOTOs: Rohit Sharma Instagram; AP)     Story continues below this ad READ MORE | EXPRESS EXCLUSIVE: Selectors to remove Rohit Sharma from Test captaincy The announcement comes after a wretched tour of Australia earlier this year resulted in a second defeat at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Monday. In the last 11 Test innings, Rohit Sharma has an average of 6.63, having managed to score only 73 …

EXPRESS EXCLUSIVE: Selectors to remove Rohit Sharma from Test captaincy | Cricket News

EXPRESS EXCLUSIVE: Selectors to remove Rohit Sharma from Test captaincy | Cricket News

Published by Webster

The national selectors have decided to remove Rohit Sharma as captain of India’s Test team, and go with a new leader for the tour of England that starts next month. It remains to be seen if Rohit travels to England as a specialist opening batsman. The Indian Express learns that the Indian cricket board will back the selectors’ decision. It’s a move not driven by a need for transition or to cull out aging players, but understood to be based on Rohit’s performances and his form in red-ball cricket. It is learnt that the 38-year-old will continue to be in India’s ODI plans. This newspaper had reported in March how the board was keen on Rohit to lead on the England tour after his success in the ICC Champions Trophy. Rohit, too, on a recent appearance on former Australian captain Michael Clarke’s podcast, ‘Beyond 23’, had talked about his excitement in leading an attack with Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami and Mohammed Siraj in England. The selectors had a series of discussions last month over Rohit’s future in the Indian …

Rohit Sharma already excited about leading in England – if Bumrah, Shami and Siraj can sing together, why not? | Cricket News

Rohit Sharma already excited about leading in England – if Bumrah, Shami and Siraj can sing together, why not? | Cricket News

Published by Webster

In the first part of the chat, Charke mentions the series in Australia that India lost. Rohit opens up. Surprisingly, he shares details about his ‘argument’ with the head coach and chief selector over his decision to sit out the Sydney Test. Unlike the uproar over The Indian Express report about Gambhir cracking the whip at Melbourne at the start of this year and the subsequent preachy ‘what happens in the dressing room stays in the dressing room’ stance of the team management, this time there is no saintly posturing about breach of the team’s trust. That’s a story for another day, back to the Clarke podcast.As expected, early in the conversation the two captains talk about the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Clarke observes how India, or rather Jasprit Bumrah, had missed his old pace partner Mohammed Shami in Australia. Rohit agrees and hopes the two, and even others, survive the IPL’s frenetic pace to be fresh for England. “It is not about bowling just four overs but the travel is challenging. Hope these guys finish the …