Rohit Sharma's captaincy receives ultimate praise from Champions Trophy teammate: ‘Very difficult to manage 4 spinners’
Rohit Sharma included four spinners in the Champions Trophy final against New Zealand, using Varun Chakaravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel.
Rohit Sharma has been receiving rave reviews since leading India to Champions Trophy 2025 glory, on Sunday in Dubai. When India defeated Australia to reach the finals, he became the first and only skipper to lead a team in all ICC tournament finals.
The MI opener led India to the finals of 2023 WTC, 2023 ODI World Cup, 2024 T20 World Cup and recently the 2025 Champions Trophy. Other than the 2025 Champions Trophy final, he also led India to glory in the T20 World Cup last year.
Also Read: 'Even when I got out today': Rohit Sharma gives special shoutout to India's 'silent hero' for always soaking pressure
Kuldeep Yadav dissects Rohit Sharma's captaincy
Speaking to Sky Sports Cricket, Kuldeep Yadav dissected Rohit's captaincy, and hailed his management of all the four spinners in the squad. Other than Kuldeep, Varun Chakaravarthy, Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel were the other spinners named in the squad, and all featured in the final.
“It’s very difficult to manage four spinners and the way he managed, it was amazing to see,” he said.
“When four spinners are playing together, it is very hard to rotate any of them. Obviously the planning was going on, we played our last game in Dubai on March 4 and we got plenty, like four or five days of break and then we had a chat how we go about this game.
“The plan for me and Varun was to bowl to the new batter. We wanted to finish Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel’s over before Mitchell Santner and Michael Bracewell come to bat,” he added.
Chakaravarthy and Kuldeep bagged two wickets each in the final. Meanwhile, Jadeja scalped a dismissal. Jadeja also hit the match-winning boundary in the final.
Kuldeep also spilled details about the role given to him by Rohit during the tournament. “In the last game when Head was batting, he (Rohit Sharma) thought probably I was the better option against him and he wanted me to bowl and get him out. If he could have hit for a couple of sixes, he was fine with it. Today obviously Varun got the first wicket of Will Young and I bowled in the 11th over. I mean, Rachin was batting really well. It was the planning, to be very honest,” he said.
