The team of head Rahul Dravid and captain Rohit Sharma provided India with one of the most memorable moments in recent times when the duo steered India to the T20 World Cup Trophy back in 2024, ending India’s 11-year wait for an ICC Trophy. The last few years has seen Rohit batting with a fearless approach, rarely caring for personal milestones as he seemed hell-bent on giving India the best possible start to their innings. Dwelling on that, Dravid said that it was Rohit’s strategy to push the envelope in white-ball cricket.
“There was a feeling that we were slightly behind in white-ball cricket and needed to push the envelope a little more. Run rates were going up, risk-taking was increasing, and we needed to adapt to that reality,” Dravid said at a special event celebrating ‘The Rise of the Hitman’ by author R. Kaushik which was held at the KSCA and hosted by Jain Sports.
“What was brilliant was that Rohit took the lead immediately. He took responsibility for setting the tempo himself, rather than asking others to do it. When your leader stands up and says, ‘I will do this, even if it comes at the cost of my average or my personal numbers,’ it becomes much easier to pass that message through the team,” he added.
L–R: Hockey legend Dhanraj Pillay, author R. Kaushik, Dr Chenraj Roychand, Chairman, JGI Group, cricketing icons, GR Vishwanath and Rahul Dravid, and double Olympic medallist P.R. Sreejesh.
In a recent interaction, Rohit had opened up about how his mindset had changed about his batting after he failed to help India win the 2019 ODI World Cup despite scoring 6 centuries and ending the tournament as the highest run scorer.
“The 2019 World Cup was a big lesson for me. I scored so many runs there, but we did not win the World Cup. So I asked myself, what is the use of this? What will I do with these runs? Yes, they remain in your statistics column and all that, but for me, that was of no real use. That is when I decided that I would play for what makes me happy,” he said on JioHotstar’s ‘Captain Rohit Sharma’s Roadmap for T20 World Cup’ show.
“That is why I started thinking differently in 2020. What I eventually implemented in 2022 and 2023 took me two years to adapt to, from 2020 to 2022. I realised that I had to play with intent and without any fear. Otherwise, it does not matter how many times I got out in the 40s or in the 90s; it never bothered me at all,” he added.
