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'He's that player who changed focus of the team when...': Mitchell Johnson snubs Rohit in huge India captaincy statement
Before the big event and a massive assignment for Rohit Sharma as a captain, former Australia cricketer Mitchell Johnson has snubbed the star batter to make a huge India captaincy statement.
Post India's win against Hong Kong earlier this month at the Asia Cup in the group stage, Rohit Sharma went up the ladder in India captaincy list to become the second-most successful leader in the T20I format after the legendary MS Dhoni. Since being name as a full-time T20I leader last November, India have been on a winning spree under his leadership, albeit they incurred an Asia Cup debacle, and now head to the T20 World Cup as one of the title favourites. But before the big event and a massive assignment for Rohit, former Australia cricketer Mitchell Johnson has snubbed the star batter to make a huge India captaincy statement.
In 39 matches as the captain of the Indian T20I side, Rohit has led the team to 31 wins, implying a highest win percentage (79.4) among all leaders who have led the Men in Blue in at least 10 matches. Since being a full-time skipper in the format, he has led India to 14 wins in 18 matches which included nine consecutive wins in a row leading to two series whitewash.
However, according to the former Australia fast bowler, it was Kohli who changed the “focus of the team” when he took over the leadership role, which was back in 2017. His comment came in reference to Kohli ending his 1021-days long century drought in international cricket with a sensational 122* against Afghanistan in Asia Cup.
“It is good for India when their best player can make runs and keep the side confident. He is that player who changed the focus of the team when he took on the captaincy. The team will be happy that he is scoring runs,” said Johnson to ANI.
Johnson also talked about India's chances in the World Cup in Australia next month after their failure to reach the Asia Cup final after back-to-back losses in the Super 4 stage.
“When it comes to World Cup, you just enjoy the moment. You need to focus, they are all big games. Indians are used to playing big games because of IPL, playing in front of large crowds with a lot of pressure. I think all that stuff (Asia Cup performance) will be behind them,” he added.
